Merry Christmas!!!

This is my Holiday Card for all my followers. I hope it is your BEST Christmas EVER and have blessed New Year!!!

The Queen's Birthday

I throw myself a birthday party as close to my birthday as I can get. Have a birthday in December, I have to plan carefully. It is tricky!!! The cookie is written that way because I am the Queen of the UFO Club. If you don't know what a UFO is it is an Un-Finished Object.

Now days we call them PHD, Projects Half Done. If you say you are working on your PHD in quilting people are REALLY impressed!!!

I have two friends attend my party. A third one showed up after she gain honor to her Queen by winning a ribbon for Me with her dogs

Squirrel and Tree with Fangs

This squirrel was eating our pumpkin on November 18, 2011. My DH put glow in the dark fangs on the tree for Halloween. We took this picture on November 26 because the rain made an interesting pattern on it.

We had Our first snow today!!!

Halloween

My DH and I bought a Bag of Bones to put it the tree stump. Our youngest daughter and her friends decorated the tree like this and this.
My DH was afraid the kids would walk off with the bones so he put them in the cage with the pumpkin and there they keep very well.
BOO

Trees

We had a magnificent maple tree just off out deck. That is why every picture I took on the deck where I do my rust dyeing is shady. It was a silver maple, which is not a hard wood tree. They usually last 100 years. Our house was built in 1919 so the tree was close to being 100. The insurance company requested we take it out. It was very sad to loose this tree.
Many animals including flying squirrels used this tree. Once 5 raccoon babies were in the tree and their mother was on the ground. I swear I heard them saying as plain as day, "Ma, ma, ma"!!!

We had a bird feeder on the tree. You can see it on the top picture. You can also see it in the picture above. Now we have a face!!!

Deep Space

My quilt, Moonscape, was accepted into Deep Spaces. All the quilts had to be 18" wide and 45" tall, that’s a vertical orientation, like a hanging scroll.

The show was divided in half to accommodate all the 50 pieces in the show. Moonscape won't be at Latimer Quilt and Textile Center but it will Edmonds Conference Center. Hope you can see it!!!

September 5 to November 6, 2011Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, 2105 Wilson River Loop - Tillamook, Oregon Opening Reception: Sept. 11, 2011, Noon to 4:00 pm 28 textile art and 8 special 3D pieces
http://latimerquiltandtextile.com/

October 20 to November 30, 2011Edmonds Conference Center, 201 Fourth Ave. N. Edmonds, Washington ArtsCrush Opening: Oct. 20, 2011, 5:00 to 8:00 pm Art Walk Opening: Nov. 17, 2011, 5:00 to 8:00 pm 22 textile art
http://www.edmondsconferencecenter.com/

January 10 to March 12, 2012 Sam Houston Memorial Museum 1402 19th Street, Huntsville, Texas Opening Reception: January 19, 2012, 5:30 to 7:30 pm

March 28 to June 24, 2012 LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum 700 Second Street, La Conner, Washington Opening Reception: March 31, 2012, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

You can order your own copy of Deep Spaces. Proceeds from the sale of the catalog will go to Doctors Without Borders. The cost of the CD is $15 through PayPal, including first-class postage by going to this page:
http://www.deep-spaces.com/
My quilt is one of the 9 quilts on the cover of Deep Spaces!

Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show

I will be vending at the Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show, held at Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel and Convention Center 4747 S. Howell Ave, Milwaukee, WI.

There are 37 teachers including: Joanie Zeier Poole

Laura Murray

Karen McTavish

All of the teachers listed above have openings in their classes. I am sure the online registration is closed but click on this link to see when their classes are:

http://mqtoday.com/index.html

Quilt show and Vendor Mall

Wednesday, August 10th at 5:00PM for Preview Night

Thursday & Friday 10AM - 5:30PM

Saturday 10AM - 4PM

Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair

At Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair, June 24-26, 2011, we ran "Make It, Take It" classes in our booth. This is where we held them.

A boy and his mother make these.

They are Paintstiks on rust dyed fabric.

Two the the models for the Fair made these Artist Trading Cards.

It was taught by Cheryl Sleboda.

Have you seen her articles in Quilting Arts? She uses LED's in her art work.
If you click on this link you can see more of her work:

http://muppin.com/etextile.htm

While at Woodfield

While I was waiting for Legoland to open, I went to Woodfield Mall. I was impressed by two really wonderful window displays! Both had paper dress, one was made out of a stiff paper and one was made out of wedding invitations.

The one at Anthropologie, was made from a stiff paper. What caught my eye, was the window that had an old Singer treadle sewing machine in the window. As I went farther I saw this one!!!


It blew me away!!!

Here is a close up of the dress. Notice how the marking are drawn on the paper.

I asked at Papyrus if I could post it to my blog. Which got the manger, of the store taking, she said every dress was different as they were free to design their own wedding dress.

I thought they did a really nice job, on the front and the back!

Finally!!!!

On Sunday June 5, I finally set up the Rust-Tex Studio!!!

I usually get it set up shortly after tax day but with the death of my mom and my youngest graduating from college it took me a bit longer this year.

The above photo shows the deck before I started. The below shows how it looked after I was done. I started around noon and ended around 3. Then I puttered around for another hour.

I was so hungry we had an early dinner. It was brats, because we do live in WI and that is a traditional German food. Brats is pronounced like it rhymes with cats.

May 14, 2011

Our youngest daughter graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design on Saturday May 14.

The white cord means she was on the Dean's List. The red cord represents her major which was graphic design.

We are so proud of her!!!

Mukwonago Show

This is how our booth at the Crazy Quilter's Guild Show in Mukwonago, WI show looked when it was all set up.

This is how it looked after 1 hour and 45 minutes after the show closed. It was not a good show for me and my DH. Paducah was the same week-end...sigh...

This Week-End

I will be vending at the Mukwonago, WI Crazy Quilter's Guild show this week-end.

Come visit me if you are in Wisconsin or a nearby state.

I will be selling these wonderful threads, my rust dyed fabric,

and many vintage items.

Here is the link if you need to know more about this show.
http://www.mukwonagocrazyquilters.com/6.html

Easter

This is my rabbit, Keekum, chilling with his bear friends. He has actually bonded with these stuffed bears, who spend all there time in the living room. I use the big one as a foot stool. He likes to lick them, which to a rabbit, is a form of grooming.

Legoland

After vending at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Schaumburg, IL, I went to Legoland. It is near Woodfield Mall. Today I had plenty of time to see it.

http://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/chicago/en/index.htm It was amazing!!!

The first thing you saw was a full scale model of Chicago. I grew up in Chi-town, so I was really impressed!!! Here is the Wrigley Building in all its white glory, with Lake Point Towers behind it.

This little sight-seeing boat had, tiny flashes going off, as the people on it were taking pictures of the various things they saw.

Buckingham Fountain, complete with sprays!!!

Buckingham Fountain

After we got past the Chicago landscape, there was this picture of Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night.

(NOTE THAT IT IS ALL MADE FROM LEGO'S!!!)

Original Sewing & Quilt Expo

I was a vendor at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, March 31, April 1-2 at the Schaumburg Convention Center. Here is how the booth looked when it was all set up. We ran a "Take It, Take It" at this end of the booth.

Here is how the booth looked 1.5 hours after the show ended!!!

4 Generations

My mother passed away on March 4. She turned 90 on February 5. We had a birthday party for her on February 12. She could not keep her eyes off her great grand daughter, who was born on January 23. This is a picture of my mother, my daughter, me and my grand daughter.

While my mother was in the hospital with pneumonia just before she died she delighted in looking at pictures of her great grand daughter as I held them up for her to look at.

The funeral will be held in Chicago, IL on Saturday March 19th. Please read this poem at 1:00pm CST, to help send my mother to heaven.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on the snow,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn’s rain.
When you awaken in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.

Thanks for being a Rust-Tex.blogspot.com reader.

Swiss Finishing School

I do a retreat in New Glarus at the Chalet Landhaus. New Glarus' nickname is Little Switzerland. The Chalet Landhaus is shaped like a Chalet. I don't teach anything. Participants are to bring their UFO (Un-Finished Objects) to finish. Thus I call my retreat Swiss Finishing School.

(hee hee)

Ann is working on a disappearing 9-patch in these yummy batik colors.

Dorothy is working on blocks that her mother left her. They were not perfectly pieced so she is appliquéing them to a base block.
Kris is making this quilt for a cancer auction that she regularly participates in.
Swiss Finishing School is usually held the first week-end in February. You can find out more about it if you click here.