Sunday, December 21, 2008

happy holidays to YOU!

Enjoy! You'll find a post about what I am doing for the holidays on my creative lenna blog: http://creativelenna.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your participation in these creative swaps and I will be in touch after the new year! Don't forget the Alice in Wonderland ATC swap is Open and not due until Feb. 3rd. Swap details below or in the sidebar to your right . . . . wishing you all the best!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

winter holiday hello!

I know many of you are busy with holiday preparations and I imagine things will be quiet here on the creative swaps blog for a while. I sent the forest quilties home a week ago and have heard from some excited recipients, thank you! I know how busy this time of year can be. I have been working about 20 hours a week at Stonewall Kitchen here in Avon, CT and it has been VERY busy and quite crazy! Inside that store, you would not know there was a recession going on!! Anyway, I have been thinking about what a busy time this is and have decided to extend the deadline for the Alpha Stamps Alice in Wonderland ATC swap. The new due date (in my hands) is Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009. I hope this helps you! For the information on that swap, please go to this post.

Steven and I are leaving on Monday the 22nd to spend 6 days with my parents in Florida. The good news as of yesterday is that the chemotherapy seems to be having good effects, even if it has made my dad feel bad sometimes. Yesterday the Dr told my parents that his CEA marker (a cancer marker) was down from 90 to 9 - wow! Great news. I can't wait to see them and plan on visiting as much as I can in the coming months.

I will announce another swap, but not until after the new year. I am thinking of an April due date for that. Thank you for your participation, your wonderful art and your support & friendship! It is treasured.
lenna

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Forest Quilties SWAP!

I am here to announce both the winner of the most creative forest quilties and to let you know they are all swapped, packaged & labeled - Ready to be mailed, tomorrow!

It again was another hard choice to pick the most creative entry for this swap, but one participants' quilties stood out more than the rest to me. Congratulations are in order to Vicki Page in Wisconsin. She has won the most creative entry with her beautiful set of wool forest quilties! I have gathered together a bunch of fabrics (including some wool) that I hope she will enjoy, and added this prize pack to the quilties Vicki received in trade. I have never seen anything like the quilties that Vicki created for our swap! You can see them below along with all the other wonderful quilties on a forest theme that came in for this swap. Thanks to everyone for participating, and a special thanks to those who were able to make an extra quiltie for me, It is so appreciated!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Forest Quilties: Margaux Lashbrook, Scotland

From Margaux Lashbrook who lives in Scotland, we have 5 really delightfully stitched forest quilties, thank you! It will be difficult to choose one for myself, that's for sure . . . .
Margaux enclosed a note that said, "The backing is a homage to the Tartan rugs so much a fixture of my childhood, and regular trips to the countryside."

I have never been to the Scottish countryside, but have seen photos of how beautiful it is from my friend who lives there, Frieda Oxenham. Frieda, in fact, introduced Margaux to my creative swaps blog and this is Margaux's 6th creative swap! See all of Margaux's fabulous artwork for creative swaps HERE.

Margaux also asked me how my dad is doing -- better, thank you. He is off chemo for the rest of the week and will start the pills at a lower dosage next week. Steven & I go to visit my parents in just 2 and 1/2 weeks -Dec 22 through 27th. I aim to have ALL of the FOREST QUILTIES swapped and in the mail by December 15 and will keep you posted here!







Forest Quilties: Fiona Brockie, Scotland

From Fiona in Scotland, we have more wonderful fabric art. This is Fiona's 12th creative swap, wow! Thank you Fiona for all the beautiful artwork you have sent in to me to swap!! See ALL of Fiona's creative work for our swaps HERE.

I see you are using a number of Alice in Wonderland images in your forest quilties . . . I hope you will join us for the Alpha Stamps Alice in Wonderland ATC swap, due in January. Let me know!





Tuesday, December 2, 2008

update from lenna

Hi ~ I just wanted you all to know that Fiona and Margaux's forest quilties have made it safely 'across the pond' and into my mailbox; I received them yesterday. If it was not for the Thanksgiving Holiday, they would have been here exactly on time! I run my creative swaps with a "must be here by . . . " deadline that you have to meet, specifically to make things easier for everyone. I found in the past when I did not have a hard receiving deadline, the entire swap group was made to wait -sometimes weeks- for stragglers, which I came to feel was not fair to anyone: me or the swap participants. But, that being said, if a participant in the UK or elsewhere outside of the USA has mailed their package to me over a week ago and it is still not here . . . I do tend to allow a day or two grace period. I think that is fair and I hope you agree. I am so happy Margaux and Fiona's packages arrived yesterday! I have not opened them up yet, but will get them uploaded here as soon as I can.

Last week was a rough week for me. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I had to go to the ER with a very bad nosebleed -for the second time in 3 days. The ER is never fun and after 4 hours they had packed my nose. This left me totally congested, and I remained that way for 5 days until I saw the doctor yesterday and he removed the packing. I could breathe again! He said I have a spur on my nose where my septum is bent. This is from a car accident I had with Decklin (my oldest son) 25 years ago where my nose hit the steering wheel; it is still a bit crooked. Anyway, I did some research and found out a bone spur is a growth that builds up along the edge of the bone and pushes outward. A spur forms as the body tries to repair itself, by building extra bone. This makes sense, re: the accident. Spurs can cause occasional nosebleeds because the turbulent airflow leads to mucous-membrane chapping. That was what happened to me. I was directed to use a saline nose spray to keep my nostrils moist, as often as I could, and use a cool air humidifier too. I am hoping these things help me so that I will not have to address my nose issues with surgery -argh! I would only do that if huge nosebleeds continue to be a problem. Sorry for all this not so pleasant and yucky news . . . It was a bit of a hard week all around as my poor dad has not been feeling well lately. We are not sure if it is the Chemo he is receiving for his liver cancer or the flu or some of both. He had to go into the Dr’s office & get an IV of fluids so he would not be dehydrated and they gave him steroids in his stomach too – for the nausea and diarrhea. Poor, poor guy. He sees his oncologist today and I hope for a bit more news from my mom.

So! This is really an update to let you know the packages are in, but it has been a bit of a not so easy time for me lately, and not to worry if you do not hear from me immediately about the swap. I was off from my part-time job at Stonewall Kitchen with my packed nose as I could not wait on customers with a drippy nose! I return to work today, plus I have a silk scarf class in my studio tomorrow and I need to deliver some artwork I made for sale to Tapestry Rose for Holiday shopping! I will keep you updated here, but those of you in the swap, please do not be surprised if it takes me until 12/15 to have the forest quilties swapped and mailed. I bet if will be sooner as I may easily be able to, but I want to allow myself that extra time, just in case. Thank you!