First Calendar Trade

The six of us are decorating calendars in a round robin style for each other and today was our first trade.  Above is a page by Lyla for Karen.  Remember you can click on any of the photos to get a larger view of them.

Close up showing photos of Karen and Lyla from a few years ago.  Gorgeous!

Lyla for Karen.  (all the titles will be below the corresponding photo)

Karen for Lyla.

Karen for Lyla.

April for Pinky.

April for Pinky.

Jan for April. (August)

Jan for April.  (October)

Cover of Jan's calendar created by Mary.  I love it!

Mary for Jan.  (August)

Mary for Jan.  (December)

Pinky for Mary.

Pinky for Mary. (March)

Pinky for Mary.  (June)

April, Mary and Pinky in Jan's studio.   A wonderful day.  Our next trade is due October 11th.  See you next week at April's house!

Mary Jane's Farm...

I put a link on here today for Mary Jane's Farm. It is a magazine for all, but has lots of great info on gardening, crafts, business, cooking, campfoods, farm animals, women using tools, and how to do all of this without harming the environment. It has articles on organic foods, both raising and buying. The web site is fun. I have used the barter site quite a bit. You click on Mary Jane, click on chat, click on fabulous buys...that will get you there (barter site). If you have a questions about animals, bartering, selling things, gardening...there is a forum for just about anything. Have fun checking it out.

Meeting At April's Today...

This was our first meeting with April arriving at noon. We kind of took over her house until she got home today. Three of us...Jan, Pinky, and Mary were working on future rag rugs. Pinky is working on a round one. Jan & Mary are working on an oblong ones.

When April arrived, she was getting ready for her Saturday Crafts Day at her church. They are going to do cutting art on rhodie leaves. She was busy making a sample for Saturday's class. I am sorry I didn't take a picture of it. I meant to and just yacked too much.

We missed Karen today. There is always a void when she isn't with us, so hope to see her next week and that she is feeling much better.

Pinky brought us the neatest copper colored ties to go on tags and shared with us all. There is one for you, too, Karen...see the top left pic.

Oh, by the way...the 2nd row left pic is of our little buddy...sock monkey...

Thanks, April for the books you let us go through and choose. That was a treat!

Thanks, too, for letting us see the art work your dad had done in the past.

We have one more week to work on the calendars for each other. We will exchange them next Tues. at April's house. Can't wait to see mine!!!

Have a great week...God bless you.

St. Mary's Quilt show and Garage saling

Four members of the S&B group met at the nearby small town quilt show and sale. The quilts are all amazing and also amazingly inexpensive. Some are brand new and some, like the ones pictured below, are vintage.

Above you see the postage stamp quilt, all hand stitched. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

This was one of my favorite art quilts on display. Gorgeous free motion machine stitching and I'm sure it is hand painted.

Very striking!

Here Pinky is holding out a cute Dr. Suess Grinch quilt.

This was another favorite of mine. Great use of a lovely bird print.

After we finished at the quilt show we went garage saling. The town always has a big garage sale weekend in conjunction with the quilt show. We made a day of it and had a lot of fun.

A Few More From Last Week...

Jan added a picture of the card Karen made from the images that April gifted us all with. Karen will make a card out of anything you give her, right there on the spot.
The pics below are:
#1 Mary's attempt at making some cotton crochet wash cloths...

#2 Jan's handmade stamps...very coooool.

#3 Pinky's latest iris folding card made from the insides of security envelopes.

#4 Jan's personal journal that she is making pages for.

#5 April's Alaska joural pages. I think she said day 5.

I'm sorry, Karen...I thought for sure I took a pic of the cute card you made from the game cards April gave us all. It was so cute and apparently I missed it. Jan, if you have that pic, would you put it on? Sorry, Karen!

It appears we can't meet this week 9-13-11 as situations arise...We are all hoping to meet Friday at the Vernonia Quilt Show and do a bit of garage saling. Hope to see you then!

A Little Late...But Here I am!

Last Tues., we had a wonderful day with all of us together. Karen has been a little "under the weather", so it was a happy day to have us all in one place. We met at Jan's studio. She has done some major organizing in there and it looks so nice. She made us her special muffins and some great dip for lunch time. April brought us a whole bag of goodies to go through and take home. That is so fun when we all share things we find. Right away, Karen made the cutest card out of the cards April gave us.

We passed out our calendars as we had decided to make each other calendars again this year. Each of us will do 2-3 pages on the calendars and then rotate them to the next person. We have done this for a couple of years now and all of us really enjoy the results and get to have them on our walls for a year. Since Lyla doesn't live in either Jewell or Longbeach Peninsula, we will be mailing hers back and forth to put in the different calendars. We are so glad she wanted to do it with us this year!

Mary brought the travelling doll, Sara, from the Mary Jane's Farm barter group. She had just been to Alabama and will be heading to Kentucky when she leaves Long Beach. Along the way, people have added to her wardrobe and sent souvenirs with her. While in Long Beach, she added a small glass float, a new knitted cap for colder days ahead, and seeds that she helped Mary get from the garden. Pinky, especially enjoyed getting Sara ready for her trip to Kentucky in her cowgirl outfit. Pinky always did like to play with dolls when she was little :>))