Precious Metal Clay

a necklace started ala Nina Bagley style

earrings . . . with the Nina knot

The charms on the left are stamped little nests with eggs . . . this is my first PMC clay attempt - just what I need another creative outlet - HA! Thanks Lisa - you know it's your fault!

Bob is off on a fly fishing trip to Lee's Ferry, so yesterday I went to the first showing of Hairspray with a friend. The music was great - it was very entertaining - always my idea of a good movie. Bob and I saw Live Free, Die Hard on Saturday before he left . . . also enjoyable if you think of it as a comedy. LOL Caution: use my reviews if you are the sort that likes mindless entertainment! My theory is if I want to think or be depressed I will read the newspaper. I just added Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts to my iPod . . . she rocks! LOVE "Before He Cheats on ME" the lyrics make me laugh EVERY time! A perfect work out tune!
xoxx, Renée

Bessie

shhhh . . . this is obsessive Bessie - she is my contribution for a mail swap and I sent them today to the others that are participating. The only parameter was to use fabric - she was fun to create - it was nice to play with fabric and paper.

My house looks like we had a tornado - while the thermometer is topping out around 110 degrees every day this week I decided to sort all the mountains of stuff that have crept in to every nook and cranny. WHAT A MESS! What in the world was I thinking!
xoxx, Renée

Paris to the Moon
Costa Mesa, CA

Darren & Kerri

Last weekend I was in Southern CA with my friend Lisa for some journaling workshops with Teesha Moore. Before the Sat. & Sun workshops got underway we went on a shopping adventure Friday. We stayed at the Residence Inn in Manhattan Beach and headed south to Costa Mesa. The first stop was at a fun shop . . . Paris to the Moon . . . an eclectic mix of jewelry, glitter, aprons & art. Darren & Kerri are the shop keepers of this very cool store. Watch for Kerri's new book, Crowns & Tiaras, release date in August. Lisa and I found a few treasures here first then we went to Orange for some antiquing. My favorites in Orange are Country Roads Antiques and Down Home American Country. Don't miss these shops if you are vacationing in Orange County . . . treasures are just waiting for your arrival!
xoxx, Renée

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing you all a happy and safe 4th of July . . . summer is in full warmth (113 degrees today) here in the Southwest . . .

Our website is back in service and there are even a few new photos of workshops coming up in August at the Country Loft (La Mesa, CA) and in Oct for Boxwood & Berries at the Country Sampler (Spring Green, WI) - I hope some of you can join me.
xoxx, Renée

Primitives of the Midwest Day 2

Pat Sloan, Me, Lynda Hall & Sue Spargo

. . .ready for a little dinner after another full day of fun! Is it my imagination or do we all look a little tired? A little food and perhaps a Culver's custard will certainly revive us!

Lovely Shopkeeper Ms. Rita & Me - Quilter's Station is such a great SHOP! Don't miss visiting this shop if you are in the Kansas City area!

Jane, Mary, Susie, Rita & Karen

Nancy & Lori working hard on Picking Cherries

Nancy, Judy & Lori

Off to pack so I will be ready to catch my plane back to AZ as soon as class is over tomorrow. It will be sad to say good- bye to all my new & old friends here in MO.
xoxx, Renée

Primitives of the Midwest
Lee's Summit, MO - Day 1
put on by Rita Briner's fabulous shop Quilter's Station

This is Clara's class! What a fun day . . . these are some of the most delightful girls you could ever spend a day with. We stitched and laughed and had a wonderful time . . . (from the left Denise, Laura, Nancy J, Marie, Susan, Me, Ellen, Lori & Nancy C). That was the morning of fun then I met my darling friend, Jo Morton, (yes THE Jo Morton) for a little antiquing fun in Greenwood, MO. (yes, yes Nancy from Thousand Oaks, CA I know "darling" is a bit overused in my vocabulary tsk tsk but they/you are ALL DARLINGS!) Then it was dinner with Sue Spargo, Cherie Ralston and Pat Sloan - (yes, yes THE Sue Spargo, THE Cherie Ralston and THE Pat Sloan) - DARLING girls! okay okay I can't help it they are DARLING! Then there was stitching and visiting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn. Can you think of a better time? Sweet dreams . . . night night!
xoxx, Renée

. . . and yes dear I know we are going to be downsizing so I passed up all the primitive treasures EXCEPT the ones that were almost FREE!

Window Dressing at Zoe's Trunk

Too bad I don't know how to take a photo through glass but maybe you can still get the idea of how the windows look.

xoxx, Renée

More from Cotton & Chocolate

Stacy, Marilyn & Jerry - Cotton and Chocolate Quilt Shop is a family affair!

Precious Camryn and her adoring grandmother, Mary!

Margie and her wonderful Strippy Quilt from last year! These darling ladies brought lots of their wonderful projects from last year to share. I LOVE THAT! Thank you girls! There will be a new Cotton & Chocolate photo album with all their projects here on the side bar very soon. Somehow I can't seem to get the link correct - !!??!?!!
Sally's darling husband, Dan stopped by for a quick visit with us after golfing! What a cutie and such a nice fellow too!

I spent this morning setting up a window display at Zoe's Trunk quilt shop in Chandler, AZ. The photos weren't very good because of the glass reflection - I will work on the glare and hopefully post those tomorrow!
xoxx, Renée

A Day at Cotton & Chocolate

Here we are at the end of the first workshop . . . these Sweet Emma dolls still need their clothes but they are close to being finished. We ate and stitched and laughed and played all day long - we had a purely delightful day together! What more could a girl ask for? Most of us went for a delicious early dinner at Cisco's . . . . right across the parking lot - mmmmm Mexican cuisine! These girls really know how to have fun!

Sally, Debbi and Mary - darling ladies!Sweet Emma with her kits and that cute little box filled with tiny spools of thread was a gift from sweet Debbi - WHAT a LUCKY Girl I AM! Thank you Ms. Debbi!

Cindy, Fran, Cheri and Margie - adorable ladies! Sleep is calling - better get some rest for another fun day tomorrow filled with laughter.

xoxx, Renée

Giddy Up Cowgirl!

Here we are on the trail ride - that is me in the middle with Bob, my husband and our friend, Joan, on the dapple gray horse. I would call Joan's horse a white horse with cute little freckles but that is not what these real cowpokes said. I rode Bill and Bob rode his other horse, Mudslide. Pretty cute horses and very well mannered!

Bill didn't seem to know or care that his rider didn't remember much about steering. We went Sunday morning for about two hours a little east of where we live. If we could have turned down the temperature a little bit it would have been a perfect morning ride - next time we will go closer to sun up.

This is Steve with Joan . . . we are already planning the next trail ride - I think Bob is pretty excited that I am joining some of this horsing around.

I am getting ready to travel to Cotton & Chocolate this weekend for two workshops. This shop is in Thousand Oaks, CA . . . a very nice shop with lots of REALLY darling ladies. Stop to visit this great shop if you are in the Southern CA area!

xoxx, Renée

Myrtle

This is Myrtle . . . she just needs a few accessories . . . some treasures to hold. She was a fun doll to make - a little bigger than some of my other recent dolls. Myrtle is for the Country Loft workshop on August 3 - I hope some of you will be able to join me.

I thought Waitress was an entertaining movie but Bob gave it a thumbs down . . . hmmm perhaps he was still under the spell of Percocet or maybe it was just too much of a chick flick! The main character is Jenna played by Keri Russell. Jenna's journaling is really funny - especially humorous for those of you who keep journals. If you are a Keri Russell fan and you want some mindless entertainment - my review is Waitress rocks!
xoxx, Renée

This is Mz. Gorgeous, a really cool paper doll made for me by my friend, Olivia Thomas! She is 18" tall . . . and looks very nice on my little cupboard.

Here are Pixie Fairy, made by Lucy Lee, and Linda Dee's Raucous Boy, my other two awesome paper dolls . . . all three of them are jointed so their arms and legs move . . . sounds like some fun play time to me! Just wanted to share some of my artist friend's inspiring work! I named all three of them . . . I hope Linda, Lucy and Olivia will enjoy and approve of their names - LOL! Don't you just love them?

My husband, Bob, had an emergency appendectomy last Thursday night. I just brought him home today . . . it was a whirlwind three days of ER & hospital fun . . . He is up for a movie this afternoon for a first outing - so we are off to see Waitress - a nice way to spend a hot afternoon in Scottsdale, AZ. We were supposed to go on a trail ride (riding Bob's horses) on Monday with some of his horse buddies . . . the first time in hmmmm about 28 years for me to ride a horse . . . surprising at what lengths Bob would go to in order to keep me off one of his horses!

Myrtle, a new doll for the Country Loft in August, will get her photo taken to post this afternoon or tomorrow before she leaves the nest.

xoxx, Renée

Home again, Home again, Jiggety Jig!

This is how the cargo van looked right before we started to unpack it. We did a pretty good job packing - it was just like a jigsaw puzzle. Cindy and I each bought a dolly - you can see them at the back of the van. They made loading & moving stuff so much easier - I highly recommend one if you are moving stuff around. Thank you for all your nice comments - I tried to take lots of photos but it just didn't happen - the week was a whirlwind! Today is the first day to feel a little less stressed . . . YAHOO!

This is Clara - she is one of the three classes I will be teaching at the Quilter's Station event Primitives of the Midwest in MO next month. She is leaving for MO tomorrow - I was sooooo late getting her done and Rita the owner of Quilter's Station was so understanding . . . that is not the way I normally operate. My new motto is "Be Prepared" perhaps I should join the girl scouts to keep on track . . . probably a little too late in life for that but I love the motto and I am definitely going with it!
xoxx, Renée

The booth is ready . . . the show opens in the morning!

On the Road in Utah . . . we stopped at a great antique mall in Springville - lots of fun and a few treasures for our booths.

all my stuff in the booth - ready to set it all up at the Salt Palace

I will post some photos tomorrow with the progress during set up and what it looks like once it is ready for opening day Friday

xoxx, Renée

Off to SLC for Quilt Market

This is our the empty rented Enterprise Cargo Van . . . ready to load all the stuff!

These are my Utility Aprons to wear during market!

Phew . . . packed and ready to roll -next post will be from the road!
xoxx, Renée

New Pattern Covers

Yippee!!!!! The new Liberty Star pattern covers are going to press - this link takes you to a new photo album with all four covers. Finally finished up the projects and went to have photos taken last Monday at Color Inc (my VERY fine cover printer and photographer). . . eeeekkk my new idea for pattern covers was a mistake so Color Inc was very accommodating to fit me in for a re-shoot on Wednesday . . . yay these are very nice! Now it is full focus on writing the insides - directions and templates. We leave for quilt market a week from Tuesday . . . so the directions need to be at that printer on Monday - I guess they need a little time so they can print them and get them to the bindery for folding . . . nothing like being a day late - probably keeps my blood pressure at peak performance! Back to writing . . . I hope you will enjoy a peak the new covers.
xoxx, Renée

Picking Cherries

This is a better photo of Picking Cherries for Primitives of the Midwest in June and The Country Loft in August. No quilting yet but at least it does have the binding so it looks more finished.

Visit my website Liberty Star to see it's brand new look - Jake did a quick revamp yesterday - he will be doing some more with it very soon. I will be updating the workshop schedule and adding some mixed media projects.
xoxx, Renée

Playing Dress Up Assemblage/Shadow Box

This is a project in the new pattern "Playing Dress Up" - it's really fun to make for those of you who like to play with paint and paper along with a little bit of sewing too.

This is the "One Room Schoolhouse Journal" for Primitives of the Midwest . . . Clara the doll and last of the three projects is waiting for her clothes . . . such a patient little doll! Then those projects will be done - yippee! A little photography for kits and they can make their way to MO. That will be one more thing done on my rather long and overwhelming list of things to get done . . . I sure don't enjoy being behind on deadlines.

. . . and all this fun stuff was a surprise from Tracy Roos in OR - SOOOOOO SWEET! Thank you Tracy . . . I love it all and will definitely try the magic wand tomorrow. Maybe a few waves of it over unfinished projects will magically finish them! Cross your fingers!
xoxx, Renée

Picking Cherries

This is a project for one of my workshops for Primitives of the Midwest at the Quilter's Station in Lee's Summit, MO - June 20 - 23. It is inspired from a vintage block that I have always thought was amusing - one lady in the tree and both of them in dresses working so hard. The two other projects One Room Schoolhouse Journal and a Primitive Doll, Clara aren't ready for photos yet but I am trying to get them done over the weekend. Then they will be off to MO . . . but not before I take some photos to post here.

The Picking Cherries project will also be a workshop at the Country Loft in August along with a new primitive doll, Myrtle.

Thank you so much for the very nice comments about the workshop and pattern projects - I really appreciate it. Several people have asked about workshop projects becoming patterns later . . . or being available as patterns - I usually don't publish them so that hopefully there will be interest in signing up for my workshops.

Back to stitching - so much to do . . . so little time!

xoxx, Renée