Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

A few weeks ago, a friend took me to a great little quilt shop in Prescott Valley, AZ. Quilt ‘N Sew Connection     www.QuiltnsewConnection.com   My friend, Luana, quilts.   I don’t but I do love to look at fabrics and how patterns are being put together.   I noticed the buttons on the checkout counter and found out some were polymer clay.   The owner and I chatted and she said it would be nice to have a local source for the buttons. If you’ve been following my blog posts about polymer clay extrusions and buttons, you know I’ve been experimenting and getting a system that works.   I made several buttons (27 to be exact) some are one of a kind and some two of a kind and even 8 of one kind.   I was wondering how to package them and came on the idea of using thank you cards from a previous business.   They had my logo on the front that I could cut off and attach my buttons with double sticky tape.   It worked!   I put them in a box...

The red and light beige finished quilt pattern What to do with those scraps?   Having been raised in Missouri and having an artist for a mother taught me not to throw away leftovers before I played with them to see what they could become.   I finally finished the red/light beige quilt pattern I had been working on in polymer clay and after storing the canes, I had scraps.   For anyone who does not know about polymer clay extruders here is a quick description.    Makin's Ultimate Extruder There is a tube with a plunger and on the other end of the tube is a cap where you place a disc with a shape cut out. The clay is pushed through the tube and out the cutout in the disc.   The shapes are then put together to form a pattern called a ‘cane’.    The cane in this case is a square and can be reduced or lengthened to be the size I want.   You can see various sizes in the photos.   The design continues through the entire cane ma...

Male Gambel's Quail Prescott’s parks are open on Wednesdays with no fees.   Today we took advantage of this and went to Watson Lake and Willow Lake.   It has rained a lot here and we were expecting normal to high water in the lakes but we found low water levels.   The bird populations were reduced also.   Willow Lake - low water - great reflection! If we had not stopped and really looked we would have missed lots of action.   I found myself thinking, “here I have my camera but not much picture material”.   That’s when I remembered to stand still and really look.   All at once two groups of Canada Geese flew from Watson Lake into Willow Lake while I was standing still.    Canada Geese Flying In The Mallards and the Grebes were swimming with their babes.    The Cormorants were sunning and drying their feathers. Mom Grebe and Babe We had our scope and found lots of Red-winged Blackbirds mixed with Yellow-headed...

It looked so easy!    I had almost all the tools.   When I was at the Quiltedinclay.com website, I thought, “ooh what fun that will be.”   So I ordered one of the quilt disc sets and later realized if I was serious about this project, I should have ordered the 2 nd set.   So I did. I decided to make the ‘Ohio Star’ pattern when the disc set came.   I read the instructions – 3 times.   Since I wanted to make the extrusions that night, I had to find enough light and dark clay of one color for the project.   Yellow and Copper.   It seems I need more practice reading instructions.   I kind of ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ and when I see something I make up my own instructions to get it done.   Usually that works.   But I know enough about quilting to know these shapes of clay need to be precise.   24" long extruded triangle and squares I figured out I would need a total of 13 long extrusions of dark and light c...

Finished Button and Beads After two days of being on the phone with a credit union, a bank, Medicare, and social security, I needed a distraction.   It was time to open my new package with the polymer clay ‘Ultimate Clay Extruder’ by Makin’s and the Bullen’s Wullens Driver Adapter.   I’ve had these tools for weeks and just kept putting off setting them up.   Found an old variable speed drill and I’m ready! This project started when I signed up for another online ‘Craftcast’ class.   This time it was ‘Extrusions’ with Cynthia Tinapple.   http://www.craftcast.com/class-or-recording-item/279652-learn-to-make-extraordinary-polymer-clay   I attended class and was intrigued.   Of course I ordered all the tools to make the class project and waited.   This evening I watched the class video again and assembled everything.   After conditioning 6 colors of clay, I rolled them through the pasta machine on the widest setting.   I used the Kem...

My Two Brothers and Me Several Years Ago Musing- Many years ago when I was in my early 20’s I decided to get married and follow my husband wherever.   It was in the Viet Nam era and instead of being drafted in the army, he joined the Navy.   So we moved from Missouri to Tennessee to California and he went on two cruises (not the kind going to the South Seas for fun) to Viet Nam.   After the Navy experience, we went back to Missouri where I taught at Stephens College and he finished his Master’s Degree.   Then it was on to St. Louis and back to the Bay Area (Mountain View, CA).   We moved to Tucson where we lived for 22 years before he passed away from a brain tumor.   Eventually, I found Peter and we moved to Prescott AZ where we live today.   The point of sharing this with you is to point out that the early decisions we make continue to have effects years later. I was the only member of my family to leave the Kansas City area and move across ...

The magic of a dragonfly in flight with the sun glinting on its wings holds me spellbound every time.   For several years I’ve been fascinated by the variety of colors and challenged taking their pictures. The current issue of Audubon Magazine (July-August 2012) has an article on the increasing popularity of ‘Chasing Dragons’.   The article points out that birding and butterfly watching have long been popular and that watching dragonflies is new to many people.   There are, of course, great photographs accompanying the article.   http://mag. http://www.audubonmagazine.com/ audubon.org/ Not to be outdone, I’m sharing some of mine with you!   It seems I need to write a post once a year about dragonflies!   If you really look at these fascinating creatures, you’ll see large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body that ends in a variety of shapes. Some dragonflies tend to perch and fly from plant to pl...