Don't pay the ransom!

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, honest! I had no idea there was so much to do for someone's estate.

Fortunately, Mom was really organized with her finances. Too bad she wasn't equally organized in her house! It's taking weeks to sort through her personal items to get ready for the appraiser. We're making headway, but it's really slow going.

I've been teaching needle-felting classes between trips to Mom's house and the women's shelter in town. The classes are really fun! I'll post photos of some jewelry pieces tomorrow.

If a funeral can be beautiful, this one was! There was sunshine, laughter, tears, music, balloons, and food. Sounds like a party, doesn't it? It was truly a celebration of a long and full life well lived.

Mom's favorite color was pink, so it was easy to choose flowers: dark pink roses, light pink roses, pink Gerbera daisies, pink lilies, pink stock, white stock, and lots of baby's breath. There will probably be plenty of Threadography pieces from photos of her flowers. LOL!



This is a photo of the "22 balloon salute" at the cemetery. There were suppose to be 24 balloons, but two broke in transit.

She would have loved the whole affair! The hearse took a wrong turn in the cemetery and we all had to circle around again to get to the grave site.

She was very organized and has made administering her small estate quite painless. Going through her house is another matter! Like many lifelong crafters, she was a packrat. Throw away 4" of ribbon left from the bolt? No way! You never know when you'll need plastic butter tubs, or strawberry boxes, or snippets of fabric scraps, or the tiny dab of glue left in the tube. Sigh! What a job.

Two bits of business: Don't forget to send the greeting card for Clotilde. Because of my mom's passing, the deadline has been extended to the end of June. Please let me know if you'd like to send a card for her and I'll give you my snail-mail address.

Also, e-mails have gone out to those who indicated they'd like to be part of the ESF Print Test Team AND who gave me their e-mail addresses. Although more than 70 people signed up, fewer than 50 gave me e-mail addresses. If you would like to be part of the team, there are still a few openings. Please leave a comment here, including your e-mail address!

I ordered flowers for the casket spray yesterday: dark pink roses, light pink Gerbera daisies, and lots of baby's breath. It should be beautiful.

The weather forecast for Friday has no mention of rain, thank goodness. Thank you to those who shared the balloon release idea for the grave site. They will be pink and white, of course! I'm hoping to get a photo of the balloons to share on the blog.

Several online friends have mentioned how difficult it is to hear the words in the Charlotte Church piece. So, here they are:

From my first moment you gave me wings
Let me fly and believed in my dreams
From that first moment you cherished me so
The journey through life would be hard with out you
You gave me all I have and all I know

From my first moment you would be there
In your arms lay the strength I now bear
From that first moment each day I have you
As seasons they change but your heart stays the same
You gave me all I have and all I know


From my first moment as time goes by
We drift endlessly through open skies
The journey though life would be hard with out you
You gave me all I have and all I know

My mom passed away Saturday afternoon. She was ready to go and weary from struggling to breathe. Family and friends visited her throughout the day and she was able to speak to them until shortly before she expired.

Ellie was surrounded by family and friends. Even the nurses gathered to sing hymns and lift her into the arms of the angels.

She will be missed by many from her years of service in her church and community.

The YouTube video above is Charlotte Church (my favorite female vocalist) singing beautiful words of tribute to a song by Eric Satie (this song has been special to me since high school). The words will be printed in the funeral bulletin and I wanted to share this beautiful piece with you!

My mom went back to the hospital this afternoon. It's 11:00 and I'm just home again. She is resting comfortably and we are grateful the frightening shortness of breath is being addressed.

They took a chest x-ray and did a CT scan of the lungs. We should know more tomorrow, but it doesn't look like a pulmonary embolism or congestive heart failure.

Image Transfer Tutorial

Original tulip photo.

Original photo transferred onto Tyvek with Earth Safe Finishes Hand and Brush Cleaner.

Finally had a minute to upload the tutorial on transferring images onto fabric, Tyvek, and Lutradur using Earth Safe Finishes Hand and Brush Cleaner. Look for it in the bar on the left of this page.

There are separate directions for dye-base and pigment-base inks and a third one for toner-base photocopies.

How to tell if your printer uses dye-base or pigment-base inks? Make a color print of something, using all four, six, or eight inks (depending on your printer) on plain paper and let it dry completely. Then, drip water on the print. If it just gets wet, it's probably pigment-base ink. If it get wet and runs or wicks, it's most-probably dye-base ink.

As an interesting note, there was a little Hand a Brush Cleaner left on a plastic plate when I was running these tests. The next morning, the cleaner was still in the plate. It had not evaporated. Interesting! Wonder if that is an indication of the no-VOC content?

Sorry for the delay in posting the tutorial on image transfers. My mom has suffered a (hopefully temporary) setback in rehab and I need to be at her side. Hopefully, she'll be back on top of it in a day or so and I can focus on the tutorial again.

In the meantime, thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes! They have been amazing!