Quilters' F-Words

The following excerpt arrived as an Email,and I just HAD to share with you.Enjoy!

"A little background--I wrote my Artist Statement (The Surprise Factor)with a little bit of humor. IMVHO, some of the artist statements Ihave read at various quilt shows sound a little pompous and lofty (tome). It seems like serious business, and I think a more relaxedapproach appeals to and encourages others to think that they, too, canshow their work.
I included this little essay, along with all the blurbs and paperworkfor the exhibit and I really liked to see the smiles on the faces ofthe readers as they read and then scrutinized my quilts, and have themrealise that we are all in the same boat, and we all have talent, andit is supposed to be fun!
Quilter's F-Words
I have been asked why I usually name my quilts with words startingwith the letter F. Fabricated Flurries, Fabricated Feathers,Fabricated Forest, Facets and Reflections, and Fabricating a Fond Farewell are just a few of the quilts I completed for a show at HomerWatson Gallery.
My response was that I am fascinated with F-words as I cut, stitchand complete a quilt. Aren't F- words a part of every quilter'svocabulary?
Now, before you get flustered, I should elaborate, and try to explainexactly what I mean. I have a fondness for every facet of fabricating..
It goes without saying that Fabric is always on my mind-I am a fabricfanatic-but fat quarters made with florals or fruit aren't really myfavourite. I have a fond fixation for fussy cutting and funky fabricand fragments of these are never frittered away.
The fraternity of quilters is frequently female, but a few malesfabricate, too. We never have enough file folders to keep our freebiepatterns found online organized and at our fingertips.
We all have fancy machines to facilitate our fabrications, but a few of us find Featherweights are fine, too.
We are all familiar with frog-stitching (rip-it, rip-it) and fussy-cutting and freezer paper for foundation piecing. We all fantasize about fancy flourishes and are full of ideas to bring to fruition.
We all have to be flexible financially to finagle funds from our finances for affordable fabric. And we must always purchase enough-we try to be frugal, but it is fairly frustrating trying to figure out where you found the fabric in the first place! And we find that this frame of mind fatigue forms frown lines on our faces.
We all know that frazzled feeling when we foolishly promise to finish a fabrication and time flies so fast, we have to stay focused to finish. Most of us are afraid fellow quilters will find the flaw that we tried to fix when we made a faux-pas figuring out that fraction. By now, we are fraught with frustration and we have to force that fabric to fit. This is often referred to as the Fudge Factor.
It concerns me that I was forced to forgo fitness so I could finish fabricating for this show, and now I am fretful that I have a flabby fanny-I ate a lot of finger food. I made frequent forays to the freezer to forage for food for my family that could be defrosted fast.

I think my favourite F-words are in the familiar refrain: Fabric,Flat, Friends, Fortunate and finally......Finished!

So, you see, I (and now I'll bet you do, too!) often think of F-words when fabricating.
What did you think I meant??

Anne Beaudoin Ontario."


...and FYI,the lady featured in an Exhibition "The Art of Quilting" last April.
http://www.museumsontario.com/museums/events/details_view.aspx?event_id=2781

Fortunately for you my friends I felt like finding some facts about a lady who could fabricate with words as well as fabric.

Morning smoko

If you look closer,you'll see three different species of birds sharing the Feathered Freeloaders Restuarant!
The blue and yellow birds are pale headed Rosellas;
Sitting on the bowl on the right is an immature Magpie----hatched out about 3 months ago!
And the brilliant scarlet is of course the male King Parrot.
Waaaaay up in the branches above the King Parrot can be glimpsed the female Pale -headed Rosella who is more shy than her mate. 

Janome Xpression

To keep Emmy of the Embellisher group on Flickr happy,I've posted four different views of my Janome Xpression.....a needle punching/embellishing machine.

The first view is of how 'she' looks..a lightweight compact machine.
Lightweight because it doesn't have the bobbin and shuttle and thread carrying components of standard sewing machines.
No thread is used for stitching at all-----the barbed needles meld(?) punch fibres into a base fabric, meshing all layers together.

This machine comes with a five needle configuration and a single needle (and spares)
I like the fact that there is a movable needle guard to protect your fingers.........although I'm sure if you didnt watch out you could still punch a finger.

The second view shows the guard raised for a better view of the needle.

Picture three is the guard in position for embellishing.

Picture four:I've removed the free-arm and opened the front of the machine: that little "compartment is where any fluff or lint from the action up top hides out until you clean the machine..........guess who didnt clean the machine after her last effort.

Oh I forgot to mention:the toolkit and spare needles slot into that free-arm

Now as regular readers of this blog know,I've only had the Xpression for a very short time;
I'm an absolute novice at this and am learning as I go,with help from online friends.
What made me buy a Janome?
Well it's the fourth Janome I've bought.........does that say anything?
The price...........a lot less than other make(s) on the market.............I could not justify to myself the purchase of a Babylock......after all,I'm not a person who sells her work, so I couldn't defray the cost that way----

I'm happy with what I have at this point in time. 

A satisfactory day

Oh it feels good to see what's been accomplished today!

Two rich fruit cakes finally baked....for Christmas/New Year;

A beautiful loaf of bread;

Four jars of Tomato Relish

EIGHT postcards completed and ready for sending on their way as part of the Art2Mail Group 18 swap....(only another 15 to complete my committment there)
A birthday card printed for my only grandson's eighteenth birthday next week.

And I'm still trying summon courage to switch to BetaBlogger as 'everyone' seems to think I should.

Peace,Love.........

Showing the blocks in detail: 

Christmas is coming.....

...and it's time to hang one of my favourite wall hangings!
Little koalas celebrating the festival,and Santa urging his "six white boomers" to start the delivery run. 

Postcards in the pipeline

I "know" I should have been doing 'house things" today,but I was itching to stitch!
So here's a peek at some of my yet to be completed cards.....eleven in all,but you don't get to see the lot-------yet!
I need a whole heap for international postings,so I thought maybe I could do a little cheating....
The wild bird photos have all been taken in my yard in the last couple of months,so I've printed some to fabric and,using Australiana fabric designs have framed the pics with a rudimentary crazy patch.
WHY do I think this is cheating.........because,although the photos are my work it doesn't seem arty enough.
What do YOU think?Would you be happy to receive one of these cards,or would you feel 'cheated' at lack of art work?

The third card....another masked reveller has been languishing in a WISP pile for a few months;
and the fourth: another Christmas card. 

Walking on the wild side!

Barb Stone,one of the members of the Art2MailGroup18,sent me this "Walk on the wild side" this week and hoped I "didn't mind" where she walked!
Not at all,Barb...........vive la differance!
Although I must admit the hairstyle puts me in mind of the Wandjina people.........People of the Dream time!
It's so great to receive so many different themes and styles.
And my grand daughter asks at each visit:
" What new cards this week,Gran?"

So,Barb and others,let's all walk a little on the wild side! 

You've got mail!

From Nellie Durand!
Early in November between visiting Nellie's Blog ,and she visiting mine we arranged to swap Postcards.
(The Link for that was my November 9 blog entry.)

Nellie's fibre card ,which is one featuring Lake Michigan was accompanied by another card
"Passing Storm", advertising a Textile Exhibition featuring her work.

Close examination of the fibre card shows the way Nellie has used curved layering to represent the waves of the lake,and added paint/foam on the wave tops.

A visit to her blog is well worth while, not only for all the techniques she shares with the reader,but to enjoy her quilts and artwork.

Now to attempt a card for Nellie!