Wow!! Thank you every one for stopping by to comment on my 1000th post. If you haven’t checked in, you still have tomorrow I probably won’t get around to do a drawing until late in the day.

Looky! My Moo mini cards and business cards arrived. They are so cool. I don’t know what I will do with them, but at least I hope I will not be caught without a card when needed. In the background is the second Spooner Lake Aspen background, all quilted. I thought I would get to the trees today, but M & M have been here. I also had to do some mundane things like laundry and neatening up the house.

Here is my bounty from the garden today. Beautiful colors, don’t you think? Tastes pretty good, too.

That is all for today. I am a tired Grandma.

Woo hoo! I thought I wasn’t going to be able to post tonight, but my site is back on line so here we go with blog post 1000. There will be prizes!!

I thought it would be fun to go back and look at my first post. Here is what it said:

This is my first blog so please be kind. I enjoy reading the blogs of family, friends and perfect strangers so I thought I would jump into the fray. As my Blog title says, I am crazy for fiber. I make fiber art and I’ve been knitting forever. I hope to share my works in progress – both blunders and successes. Once I figure this out, I’ll add some photos. I like blogs with photos and few words.

I received 3 comments; one from my daughter, Lisa, telling me she would teach me to post photos; one from  my good friend, Diane, who welcomed me to the neighborhood. But this was the funniest. It was from Mr Tasty Cake and said:

Crazy For Fiber-I must admit I was a little disappointed; I was hoping this would be a blog about shredded mini wheat addiction, nevertheless it was a joy to visit. Cheers and nice fiber!

So here is the deal, I have the older Spooner Lake Aspens which I showed a few blogs ago.

I am now constructing two new Aspen pieces. One is going to the Art for Autism auction. The other plus the older one will be give aways to two people who comment on my blog.  I will do a random drawing on Friday.

Up at the top, you see the new trees that I made. I fused some of the new painted organza (silk for the person who asked – I never use synthetic) to plain organza and some to more of the painted fabric. This gives a more opaque tree with more dimension. I like it on that landscape, better than the other trees from the dye painted organza.

Many of you commented on the color of the sky in the new landscape I created.

So I got out my trusty Sherrill Kahn travel paint studio which is cute little bottles of Jacquard Dynaflow paints.

I used a couple of blues and painted the sky darker.

I like the original trees with this landscape which I have not quilted as yet.

Thank you all so much for helping with my design dilemma. It was fun to hear from so many of you. Tomorrow, I have to get back to stitching.

Don’t forget to leave a comment to win some Gericon art.

Did you see that? This is my 999th blog post. What am I going to do for #1000?

Here is my design dilemma. I was so excited about using this dye-painted organza for my aspens, but I just don’t like how it looks with this background. Here is how it looked quilted with no trees.

I decided that I needed to do a simpler background which I worked on yesterday and finished today. It is not quilted, yet.

Here it is with the aspens.

I like this better, but I am not sure that the aspens are working as well as I would like so I painted some new aspen organza fabric tonight.

Tomorrow, I will slice this up and audition it.

This morning, we let Scooter out in the front yard for a bit and he ran off to the neighbor’s. Mr C put him on a lead. Here he is peering into the window wanting us to pay attention to him. Isn’t he so cute?

Stay tuned for #1000. Not sure if it will be tomorrow or not.

I know, most quilters have cats who help them pack their IBOLs (Iraqi Bundles of Love), but I have Scooter. He was very curious about what I was doing.

I got such a kick out of Art LaFlamme’s instructions; they are very engineering sounding, but effective. He ends up with a bundle of goodies ready to be given away; it is really brilliant.

Today, I ran over to the Mill Ends store near me and picked up some nice large remnants to put in my box. I wanted to send some pieces large enough that they could be used for something in Iraq.

The first thing to do is lay some twill tape, or ribbon or yarn crisscrossed in the box.

Then you lay a large piece of fabric over the ties and form a pouch for placing the goodies.

Then fill it with fabric and notions. I threw in some yarn, too.

Tie the bundle up.

Scooter checks and rechecks.

As I was checking out, I saw this box of mints which I placed on top for Art. I should have made him cookies or brownies, but then that would limit the fabric.

If you want to participate in this, but don’t have the stash or the time to put a bundle together, here is a great opportunity. Sew Mama Sew has this wonderful offer.

For your contribution of fifteen dollars we will send one Iraqi Bundle of Love to US soldiers who will distribute the bundles to Iraqi families and sewing co-ops. One bundle will include:

• 5 yards of new fabric
• 16 sewing needles in a case
• 32 pearlized pins on a wheel
• 1 tomato pincushion
• 1 pair folding scissors
• 1 150 yd spool white thread

The cost of shipping is included in the price!

What a deal.

Sunset Composition arrived home from Kansas City where it was part of the SDA Member’s Show. I had forgotten about it. I am excited because it is a piece that I can enter in PAQA South’s Illumination show. Do you think it will fit the theme?

I also received the DVD’s of the conference and technique sharing. Because of my schedule, I missed some of the talks so will enjoy watching these.

And, I also received this wonderful piece of jewelry from Broken Plate Pendant Company. The wonderful artist and friend of our family, Diana Fayt, had these wonderful pendants made from shards of a broken pot. If you click on the link, you will see the pot before it broke and read about the good cause that it supports. I love it.

Today, I decided to clean and organize the laundry room/mud room/dog feeding room/put it here if you don’t know where it belongs room. I purged, found lost things and reorganized. It took me all day because I took lots of breaks to walk the dog, eat lunch and think about things.

We are having the big family get-together in mid September so I am trying to keep on top of things. I think the caterers may want to use that room for some staging. Speaking of which, I finalized the menu —

• Bruschetta – topped with house made mozzarella & three pestos – classic basil, oven-dried tomato and kalamata olive.
• Chicken Roma – breast of chicken wrapped with proscuitto di Parma and sage leaves.  Brushed with extra virgin-olive oil and hardwood grilled.
• Organic Field Greens – with Mountain gorgonzola, pears and Oregon hazelnuts in a balsamic vinaigrette.
• Orchid Noodle Salad – snow peas, red peppers and carrots tossed in a soy-balsamic vinaigrette with linguine.
• Rice Pilaf – a savory blend of wild rices, mushrooms and spices.
• Wood-oven Roasted Vegetables – fresh seasonal vegetables roasted with extra virgin olive oil
• Whole Grilled Salmon - marinated in asian plum sauce or lemon and herbs, wrapped with banana leaves and finished on the hardwood grill. Served with a Thai basil dipping sauce.
• Braised Short Ribs – boneless beef short ribs braised with red wine and aromatics.
• Freshly baked Grand Central breads – Served with Smoked Garlic butter
• Cassata – kahlua soaked sponge cake with a sweetened ricotta and chopped chocolate filling. Garnished with Chantilly cream.
• Boccone Dolce – swiss meringues drizzled with semisweet chocolate and layered with whipped cream and fresh fruit. A classic northern Italian dessert.
• Cheesecakes – classic New York style poached cheesecake made with cream cheese and sour cream. Ask about our seasonal varieties.
• Caramel Nut Tart – walnut shortbread crust filled with caramel, walnuts and pecans. Finished with rich chocolate ganache.

Papa Haydn, known for their desserts, is doing the catering so a plethora of goodies is included. The Cassata is a cake, the others are miniatures.

We watched The Reader tonight — fabulous movie. I am tired. G’ night.