Sunday, January 29, 2012

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.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

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.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

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.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

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.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

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!