Yet another Fiona Bag. My friend Mary loves my fabric but does not sew. So she selected a piece of my hand marbled fabric and I made her a bag with the textured cording. The buttons are deer antlers pieces. It may look a little smunched as I put it in my scanner, the batteries on my camera have died.

I just joined the local quilt guild. Around16 women and only 3 or 4 have quilted before, but the rest are eager and willing to learn. Before I joined the Sew 'n' Sews made a quilt to raffle off to raise money for the new library building. And now a couple of other community groups would like fundraising quilts as well. So we were asked to choose a color, a block and make three blocks, Brights, Country and Pastels, using white for the background. This was a real challenge for me. I generally audition colors and put together what feels right. I seldom use pastels or white unless it is a focus color. Well, I don't draw inside the lines very often either. It was great fun to get out my stash and see just how many shades of green I had.

On the left is a version of Fiona's favorite bag. I used a cord maker to create the cord. I have been using a regular black cord on most of my bags, but that got a little boring. I found this cord maker and have been having a great time making fun and intresting cords with texture. Now I get to create bags to go with the cords on the right. Such fun adding texture to my world.

Here is a new friend. I found this pattern and thought he was just to cute to pass up. The Toadally Awasome Toad is made using one Fat Quarter of Yukon Gold hand marbled in the rocks or stones design. He always looks like he has had a nip or two of moonshine.

I'm back! The saying life happens has become a reality in my life. I am in the middle of physical therapy for my ankle. It is a real challenge. Recover is all about balance. To much and you slide backwards, not enough and you don't move forward. In order to achieve the proper balance I had to let a few things go for a time. So I am back to blogging once again.

New featured fabric (back by special request) Ugly Duckling in the Freestyle design. Look at my February 28, 2007 entry to see why.

I just got overwhelmed in a big way. I have been told that my chi was out of whack. That is a nice way to say I encountered a full meltdown. I had to reorganized my life and set priorities. And it has to be pretty important right now for it to get done. All is well and I hope to be back to blogging soon.

PS. The ankle is getting better too.

Everything I know I learned from My Dog.
Life is all about adapting. Miss Molly is a rescued dog. When she first arrived we thought her tail was broken because she always had it tucked between her legs. Molly came to live with us two weeks before I was involved in a auto accident that almost took my life (but that is a different story). Molly and I recovered together. She spent her first weeks in a tent formed by my borrowed recliner and the blankets I was wrapped in.

Now Molly is a happy healthy crazy dog. She takes her job of protecting me very seriously. I had ankle surgery the first part of December. Molly moved into my studio with me. I have two rolling office chairs that I use, so I can stay off my feet and elevate my ankle as much as possible and still work. Molly figured out how to get herself wedged under one of the chairs and roll me around the room. If I can't get my good foot on the floor in time, Molly runs me into the wall.

I just got clearance to be able to walk outside in my yard. When I stepped onto the grass for the first time Molly went nuts. She did the happy dog flips/end to end swaps and raced around like a crazy wild thing. She always adapts to the situation and shows great joy at my smallest progress.

It's catch up time. I just spent the weekend at the Kitsap Quilters Annual Quilt Show. 325 Quilts were hung for everyones viewing pleasure. It always amazes me, such wonderful, beautiful, mind blowing creativity. I love seeing new teqniques and getting new ideas. I always find inspiration. Now if I only had more time to create quilts. I really can't complain as I have been marbling fabric like MAD! And selling it just as fast, but I have desided that struggling to keep up with the demand is a good thing.

I am also finding that I am headed in a new direction with other fabrics that I sell. I currently have two fabric lines that are made by artisan overseas and made by hand. They are then paid a fair and liveable wage and the fabrics are inported to the US. It hads always been my belief that you don't give money, give them a way to make a better life themselves. The artisan can remain in their villages, support themselves and their arts lives on. So I am in the process of searching out other fabrics. Any sugggestions? They must be of high quality, cotton, suitable for quilting.

There is nothing like a good bookkeeping program. When I first started Marbled Arts one of the first things I purchased, to help keep everything organized, was a bookkeeping program. The first year I had no Idea what I was doing. I called our account and he gave me some ideas and pointers. Each year I have spent a little time "tweaking" how the program organize the information for tax time. This year I just had to make a couple of "tweaks". Now I just have to run a couple of reports and the information is all right there and just needs to be entered into the right places.

All that hard work finally paid off.