Goodbye Precious Madeline

My heart is broken. My dear friends', Cindy and David Lester, three year old daughter, Madeline spent the last six months recovering from heart surgury in the ICU at Children's Hospital in Seattle. She suffered many setbacks, but each time God pulled her through. A couple weeks ago she developed a blood infection which ravished her little body. Earlier this week she suffered a brain hemorage. She was taken from her mother's arms into the loving arms of God. Everyone who has been touched by her incredible spirit and parents mighty faith aches with her passing. I poored my grief into this book, a guest book for her memorial service. Maddie, I miss you and my kids are anxious to go to Heaven so they can play with you there. Cindy and David, I love you more than words can say.

More Art-O-Mat Treasures

I receieved my second paycheck from art-o-mat on Christmas Eve. This one was over 10 times my first check and my husband didn't even laugh. I sold 62 pieces over the last three months. If this rate continues I will need to make about 250 mini quilts and other fiber pieces a year. What Fun!!! These are a few little "Dreams" that I made while taking a break from cleaning and organizing this New Year.

When I started this series, the little fabric beads reminded me of dreams tied up in a scroll. Each piece has a name that refers to a type of dreams. Previous works have bee "Secret Dreams," "Growing Dreams," "Wild Dreams," and "Bandaged Dreams." haven't come up with names yet, so if you have any suggestions as to what type of dreams they appear to be I'm open to suggestions.

Last weekend I managed to find a stretch of time to play with some fabric that I had quilted and painted earlier in the week. I was suppose to be working on my Chocolate challenge piece, but this rainbow of colors was calling to me. I just needed something fun and colorful to fill the day. The attempt to add order to the chaos of the stitching and colors is a reflection of life around our house. Somehow I keep thinking that I can push all that energy into some organized direction. I know, I know, it's never going to work, but please don't take away my hope. .

The piece is 16" x 16". I painted the fabric with the whole rainbow of colors, but it definetly reads as a triatic color scheme -- blue green, red violet, and yellow orange. I'm planning on adding a small black border when I have the opportunity to pull the sewing machine back out.

I happy to have some color to add to the wall now that the Christmas decorations are put away. A reminder that summer is coming during our wet winter days. (Though I can't complain today since we woke up to three inches of snow!!! Enjoy it while you can and ignore the rain that is coming down on top of it.)

Quilting Arts Embellishments

Does the background art look familiar? My inch wall-hanging was featured in the Quilting Art embellishments newsletter on December 26th. I was so excited to hear from the magazine that they wanted me to write a short how-to article about my wall hanging. Luckily the writing went very smoothly and only added a day of stress to the week before Christmas. Then I woke the day after Christmas to a wonderful gift in email box.

This issue of the newsletter hasn't made it to the archives yet, but I will post a link when it appears. For now, if you would like me to forward you the newsletter I would be more than happy. Just send me your email, nikkiwheeler@earthlink.net, and I will get to it asap.

The Unveiling of the Christmas Gifts

Merry Christmas! Okay, I know I am a little late. With everything going on, I have sadly neglected all my cyber friends. I hope you understand and know that you are not forgotten. I have now pretty much dug out from all the Christmas Chaos and will have time to catch up with each of you.

These are the Christmas quilts I made for my mom, mother-in-law and friend Shannon. Lucky for me, my friens Cindy's family is celebrating Christmas in July so I have some extra time for her gift. I made these by first stitching a white quilt sandwich (fabric, batting, fabric) with the preprogramed decorative stitches on my sewing machine. I used stars for the red and green pieces and snowflakes for the blue pieces. I then painted them with watered down acrylic and fabric paints in the various colors and values. I then cut them into 1/2" strips and sewed the designs together using a zig-zag stitch and metallic thread. Beads finished off the edges and I stitched them on mat board. Each piece is approximately 10" x 14".

My mom's red and greeen "Christmas Cheer" quilt coordiates wonderfully with her bed sized traditional Christmas quilt she has hanging in her living room, even down to the black border. Hopefully "Winter Wonderland" will work as well in their new homes.

Time to Update My Bio

My birthday came and went without me having a free minute to post about it. I'm one of those pre-Christmas (December 20th) babies that has always struggled to have a day to herself amid all the Christmas celebration. Add my husband's birthday on December 22nd and we have a very busy week.

This year my friend Shannon brought me Thai food for lunch -- such a wonderful gift, especially since lunch is my least favorite meal to cook. Our kids played and we attempted to give our three year olds hair cuts. We did okay, just ignore the bald spot on Emitts head. He's a boy and hair grows quickly. My mother-in-law came to watch the kids in the afternoon and I was able to get my annual hair cut. My husband then took me out to a fancy dinner and I was able to feel like a growny-up for the night. The kids baked and decorated a cake with grandma. We didn't want them to wait up for us so they celebrated without me, blowing out the candles themselves.

All in all it was a good day and over way to soon. I'm now excited to see what 34 and 2008 have in store.

Happy Birthday Cindy and Erika

Happy Birthday last week to my friend Cindy and sister-in-law Erika. I couldn't post pictures of their gifts until I had the opportunity to deliver them. I'm still suffering from a nagging cold so I had the send Cindy's gift with another friend to the hospital where she is waiting with her daughter Maddie for a heart transplant. Last night we had our family birthday party for all the December birthdays (Erika, my husband and me). Now I am free to show off my creation.

I made a Sunflower for both Cindy and Erika. I figured they could use a little sunshine on these cold, wet winter days in the Pacific Northwest.

Inchie Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree yesterday using all the inchie ornaments that I have made over the last month. I have over 300 inchies. I also made some small beaded ornaments using head pins. Then I through on some mini quilted boxes.

My husband and oldest daughter did all the lights and the kids placed most of the ornaments, so my main job was refereeing who got to hang which ornament. Emitt, my 3 year old would pick a single branch and load ornament after ornament onto one spot. Isabelle and Annaliese, the two oldest, tried to get thier ornaments as high as possible. Rosaliegh, my 4 year old, then filled in the middle. Now I have the task of spreading out the crowded branches and turning the ornaments around so the decorated side is facing out.

Thankfully all the ornaments are relatively indestructible. I don't have to worry about the vintage glass balls suffering from little hands. The past few years even the wooden ornaments haven't faired so well. I think fabric is the way to go for at least a few more years.

Gift Boxes for a Friend

No, I haven't vanished. I have been suffering from a cold for the last three weeks. What energy I have, I have dedicated to creating. So many ideas for Christmas and so little time.

I created this tower of gift boxes for my dear friends the Lesters. Thier 3 year old daughter, Madeline, has spent the last five months in the ICU at Children's Hospital in Seattle recovering from heart surgury. She recently developed a rare complication from the surgury and now is waiting for a new heart. Maddie's parents, Cindy and Dave have exhibited such faith through this whole experience. They truly are an inspiration. I wanted to do something to show them how much they are loved, so I made 45 gift boxes filled with either chocolates or tea that they can give to the nurses, doctors and people who have supported them at the hospital. I figured they would like to give some type of thank you gift to everybody this Christmas, but wouldn't have the opportunity to get anything together themselves.

Each stitch in these boxes are full of love and prayers for Maddie. May God grant us the Miracle we all so anxiously await.

Nesting Boxes

I just can't resist openning a box to find another little box inside. It is so much fun to travel down the path of box after box to discover what hides inside. Okay, currently there is nothing inside the smallest of these quilted boxes, but one day I might find a treasure. To create these boxes, I began with a piece of fabric I had used to wipe up paint while painting some Red and Green fabric paper. I then quilted it using red metallic thread on top and green in the bobbin. The tension was tight so the green thread came to the surface adding specks of green along the quilting lines. I then used this quilted fabric to create little boxes by zigzag stitching the sides together. The fabric was soft enough to be able to manipulate it under the sewing machine. The smallest box is a 1 inch cube and each box is 1/4 inch larger. The largest box is a 3 inch cube. These will make a fun addition to my Christmas tree, tucked in among the branches. And who knows, maybe there will be some treasures hidden in there.

My Art is For Sale in New York City!!!

These are a few more "Dreams" pieces that I have made for Art-O-Mat. I'm working on sending off another 100 pieces before Thanksgiving. I am excited to here that they have sent my pieces to eleven different machines including The Whitney Museum in New York City. I never expected to know that my art if for sale in New York City! You can find my work in the following locations: Contemporary Museum Shop - Honolulu, HI BKB - Tacoma, WA Amarillo Museum - Amarillo, TX Carrburritos - Carrboro, NC Salem College - Winston-Salem, NC Whitney Museum - NY, NY Erie Art Museum - Erie, PA SW School of Art and Craft - San Antonio, TX Pi Gallery - Kansas City, MO Accent Designs - Goshen, IN Turchin Art Center - Boone, NC I would love to here from anybody who has visited these machines. And if you happen to have a picture I'll ladly send you a treat in the mail.

The Next Experimental Step

I've started cuting up my fabric and piecing it together with a zig zag stitch. I needed some more fabric so I created some more with the same yarns on a purple hand dyed base. I have a feeling this quilt will call for a lot of fun embellishments. Who knows, it might take after my dandelion quilt. The photo isn't the best, even taken outside the colors are't appearing true. There is definetly a blue cast with very little of the green showing up. It may be the early morning light, so I'll have to try again later in the day. We have clear skies so I didn't want to miss a limited opportunity.

Christmas Inchies

I created these inchies for a trade at Fiber Arts Bits. We are trading from 1-20 sets of five inchies each. The trade is open until December 1st so if you would like to participate feel free to jump over to the web site and sign up. I had so much fun with these that I couldn't stop at just the twenty sets. I created them with the same method I used for my experimental piece of fabric. I used the needle felting machine to create swirls of yarn on red and blue fabrics. I then free motion quilted with more swirls. I then cut them up into 1" squares and zig zagged around each. I then hand sewed each of the embellishments and hangers. My husband was very gracious and played Barbie, Polly Pocket and Go Fish with the kids while I was able to sew away. I think I will leave all our old Christmas ornaments packed up this year and decorate our tree with inchies. The kids wont be able to break them and I wont have to unpack everything. Here's a detailed view of each of the inchies:

A New Experiment

This is some fabric that I am working on for a new quilt. I'm trying this time to take pictures and blog along the journey. I've already forgot to photograph two steps, but I'll have to live with that. I began with one of my paint clean up rags. The colors are mostly blues, greens, and purples, with a splash of the whole rainbow. I then needle felted spirals of various yarns. I then free motion quilted sprials over the whole piece with gold, purple verigated and green verigated threads. The fabric is very textured and has an interesting free. I've began cutting it up and piecing it back together.

I'm hoping when I can tame the craziness with some strong line and embellishment, much like my daily attempt to tame the chaos. I don't think the chaos will end any time soon, but maybe I can add some order.

Inchies in Houston

My inchies made it to Cloth Paper Scissors's Make it University at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I didn't know for sure until I saw a glimpse of them in photos taken by Kathy. The wall hanging was in the corner of a photo of another work, but I will take what I can get. I'm just excited to know that my work was there. If you would like to see better photos of the actual pieces, just scroll down a couple of entries.