August Recap

August was insanely busy, but I don't have many pictures to prove it. It was a month where work was so intense there wasn't much room for anything else. Ethan was still in America, and Rob and Haven had gone to the Philippines. So it was just me and the cats. 

Yes, I talked to them. Yes, they answered back. Unfortunately we don't speak the same language... but I'm sure we understand each other. 

So anyway - my HUMAN friends and I worked hard in August. 

This is me and Kitty (OMG I just realized how funny that is... that IS her name!!!) at the CARE Fair promoting Arts and Crafts. 

 For one week we hosted all the Arts and Crafts Directors in Europe for a training. We all shared about our programs and talked about ways to improve. It was an amazing week that I could talk your ear off about. But I won't. One of my contributions was showing them all how Canvas and Corkscrews works by having them be attendees. This is us!

 We clearly had fun...

And this is my painting.

I taught Cake Decorating, and these are the Wilton 2 "graduates" with their cakes.

 And my cake from teaching them the basket weave technique. Those are cake balls on top shaped to look like apples.

 These three cakes (all from class) were entered into a baking contest and got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for the "Presentation" category! I was so proud of our group!!

 Melissa, who got first with her sunflower cake, couldn't stay long enough for the awards, but here's Anne and I proudly wearing our little ribbons!

 I finished this quilt in time for it to be given to the recipient. I blogged about it here if you missed it.

The whole family came home at the end of the month, but I only got a photo of Ethan. Mostly to prove to my parents he made it home - since he flew alone. So proud of him! It was nerve racking for all of us, but he did great!

So grown up - even got his own ID card! He no longer needs me .... until he gets hungry... 

It's been ridiculously cold here this month. Cold and rainy. So cold. Did I mention it's cold? But hey, here's a double rainbow. So life is good!

Painting with Thread

If you follow me on Pinterest you might have seen some pretty cool art quilts that I pinned a couple of weeks ago. Our Deputy Commander is leaving and I was commissioned to make a quilt from our Directorate. She is a pretty special person with a neat story, and a great supporter of the arts. So I wanted to make her something really nice. I wanted to use the Mandala as inspiration for the quilt.

In researching this concept I came across this one that apparently was in a quilt show. Isn't that quilt STUNNING?!?! I found this thread on The Quilting Board which I THINK is the beginning of the same quilt. And that's how I figured out how to do this:

 BAM!

So it started out with a sketch from the link above to build the pattern. I stuck some Steam a Seam onto the scraps of fabric and then traced the pattern. The cool thing about Steam a Seam is it's sticky, so you don't have to iron it until you are ready to permanently set it. So you can play around with the layout until you are happy and then blast it with the iron.

 Then I put it on the long arm. It's going to be a wall hanging so I didn't stitch the edges. The original quilter satin stitched her edges. I didn't bother. I knew the quilting would hold everything in place.

And twelve hours of quilting later...

 My shoulders were so sore by the time I was finished... but it was worth it!