They said we were going to get snow today,

somewhere between 1 and 3 inches,but my body said no we wouldn't. My body isn't what it used to be when it comes to physical activity but it is rarely wrong when it comes to the weather. No snow it kept telling me or at least not much to concern myself about and as it turned out, the old body was right again. We did not wake to snow on the ground as forecasted. There was none to be seen by nine and nary a flake by noon. Around 3:30 in the afternoon there was maybe, 1 to 3 hundred flakes all total that fell from the sky and in my world, that's not SNOW. I was really glad that we didn't get what was predicted. I had plans and I didn't want to forgo my day out due to bad weather.

The fiber art group I belong to here in Columbia meets once a month on the fourth Saturday and this month we were schedule to gather at Barbara Owen's home. Barbara is not one of the original members of the group/. She joined us last fall when a couple of other members dropped out. She's a great addition and resource.
As a side story; I met Barb soon after I moved here. For long time readers of my blog and those with a longer memory you may recall that she's the wife of a general contractor. The one Lyn and I hired to finish our attic space over the garage and turn it into storage space that we could access with a pull down, fold-up staircase.
Several days into the job, Barbara came with him to act as his "go-for". Barb and I were instantly at ease with each other and talked as if we had known each other for years. We gabbed so much that her husband thought she had come to visit me instead of being there to help him.

We meet orginally in a breakout room at the library, but since then we meet in each others home studio spaces. Because of that, we limited the group to a Baker's dozen. Like all groups its rare that we are all at every meeting. Today was no exception. We were eight. Back row, left to right, Janet, Jackie, Becky, Front row, Patti and Sally, and Barb in the distance.

What's good about the group is each month one of us is responsible for providing an instructional program for the group. If the technique does not require more than a couple of hours, we have two people present as was the case today. Becky Covington had the after lunch session which I will tell you about tomorrow.

Back to Barbara. Her contribution to our continuing growth as fiber artist was to demonstrate how she uses an Embellisher. She owns a Baby Lock 7 needle model and she is in the process of producing educational videos for embellisher users. Today her studio was set up with a camera to capture her every move at the machine. It was great. We didn't have to crowd around her. Her husband fnctioned as her second set hands, operating the camera, zooming in for close up shots as directed and we could see every move she made by watching the action on the televison screen. So if you are wondering why we are not looking at her and are facing forward we are watching her on the television. Here are two of the pieces she created with the embellisher. Her collection of "see what I did" ranged from stretched fabric pictures to quilted fiber art finished with bindings to pillows to a box to portfolio covers and other fashionable accessories.
Her fibers of choice were many and widely varied. Best of all , she was very generous with her knowledge of what she has found that works and what doesn't.

An hour and a half long demonstration by her nearly two years ago; on what the embellisher could do, was the reason I brought one. With the exception of me removing it from the box it came home in and me checking to see if it was operational; I have yet to spend more than an hour with it. Maybe it's time I took it out of the closet again.,.....

Barb does dolls too. Her husband carves wooden Santa's that she paints in the studio they share, but that's another two whole blog entries worth of "Isn't this just great stuff". That I will save for another time. >