I used to be . . .

Blouse Cuffs

Today I realized I'd made a mistake and forgotten to get a number in the 8800's re-assigned (and since Beth is now assigning 9300's that's pretty far behind). Luckily, I had this piece on my design wall all but finished - waiting for the buttons and the backing. So I quick finished it up and got it registered as 8885 and filled a hole in our numerical order neatly. These are actual blouse cuffs that were so pretty, I decided to deconstruct them to see if I could save the lace. Then I won some fabric paper on Fannie Narte's blog and I held it behind the salvaged lace and thought it looked pretty. Lightly batted with felt, I quilted around the circles in the lace and laid a strip of blouse fabric down to cover the center where the two cuffs met. I wanted to keep the lace edges intact, so I backed the whole thing with a piece of fabric covered Timtex. Glad it's off my design wall and will be on it's way to earn money for Alzheimer's research for the AAQI.

Humming Along

I signed up for a Craftsy.com workshop called Stupendous Stitching with Carol Ann Waugh. The class was aimed at making larger collage works, but I wanted to try it out small with a Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I find myself unable to create a collage without a significant focal point, so I built this little piece around a hummingbird.

Nelumbo

Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers resembling water lilies, commonly known as lotus. The American lotus is found in North America and the Caribbean. I was searching the internet for an Asian flower to paint on some Asian themed background and came up with the lotus. Nelumbo will be donated as a Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. The background fabric had too wide a repeat, so I sliced it up and re-assembled pieces on a sheet of Lutradur. Then, on a whim, I glued the pieces together with a luminescent glue that was laying on top of my shelving unit. I stitched the flower first, then painted it and finished it off with some Pearl Ex for some color variation. The binding is painted background fabric.

Sister Gifts

I have two sisters and one sister-in-law who are very dear to me. We exchange gifts every Christmas that we call Sister Gifts - the rules are simple: it has to be hand made. We've shared lovely gifts over the years and every time I start to think we've covered all the bases (there are no more hand made things to give) we all come up with really neat stuff. This year I gave two sister gifts because when Dad died last December I never got mine finished. That particular project remains unfinished. I made two new things.

The birds are a note or picture holder. The bags were silk blanks from Dharma that I painted and then beaded. I'll take pictures of the gifts I received in the next day or so and post them.

Happy New Year!

I must say I got out at the best time of the day. When I walked over to the Mather to put in an hour of volunteering the sun was out, the sky was blue with smallish white fluffy clouds in it. I wanted to somehow gather up all the residents on my floor and take them outside to see it, but of course, that wasn't possible. At any rate, it was a lovely start to my day and now it's blowing bits of sleety snow everywhere. I'm now happily snuggled in. I did add some beads to my Wild Cat piece and I think it really improved it. It was too dark and almost boring, I think - all that olive green and black! I truly believe in serendipity as I had just bought these flat yellow beads for flower centers and they were laying out on my worktable when I was re-thinking Wild Cat. They are the perfect addition!