Zebra quilt

This was a gift for my friend Jane's birthday. Poor Jane - I've known her for probably 10 years and have forgotten her birthday for 9 of them, so this is long overdue. Anyway, she's got a "thing" about zebras. I found a close up of a zebra's face on photobucket of all places and appropriated it since it was not going to be for sale.

It's made out of white velvet and the black is actually just sharpie marker. It seemed appropriate to me to notice from the picture that a zebra has both black (bottom - black thread) AND white (top - eyelash yarn) eye lashes. It's a wonder he can see at all with those long white ones. I couldn't find a black or a white fabric that looked good with the velvet and since Jane also has a "thing" for red, I found this red velour that I figured would be a nice touch with the velvet. I had a devil of a time getting it on, though, even after stabilizing it, so it's not quite straight.

Making Postcards

I've had a drawerfull of half finished, barely started and in-pieces postcards for months and when I was going up to Beth's, I decided to go through it and take these UFOs up and get them together. This is only the first group that I've finished - there are probably at least this many still waiting for finishing attention. And since I've sworn not to put them back in the drawer, finished they will get. The AAQI will get a batch of new postcards!

Ahhhhhh, I'm home!

There is nothing like going away for a bit to make you appreciate your own space! When Tom dropped me off at the train, he made a joke about now I've experienced surburbia, I'd be glad to get back to the city. I said that this was not suburbia, this was the wilderness! I do enjoy public transportation, though - you meet so many nice people. A man held the door to the shelter open for me to get in with my suitcase and he and his wife and daughter were people I would never have met normally. Yet, while we waited the couple of minutes for the train, we chatted about the weather and Metra travel. Then this nice man lifted my suitcase onto the train for me! So there are also a few wierdos on most trains, you an just ignore those...like a dog - if you don't look at them they won't bother you.

Except Beth and Tom's dogs. VERY persistent! I can't say I will miss them, but they really weren't bad dogs. They're just DOGS, and I'm not overly fond of dogs. We did have fun playing in the snow this morning, though.

When I got off the train in downtown Evanston, I just couldn't stop grinning. People, lights, traffic. I love it all.

And I had a ton of fun mail - well a ton of boring stuff and some really fun things from One World One Heart, an invite to a studio opening, a card from my cousin Carol, a DVD I bought when blog hopping during OWOH and one I won. Oh and a cross stitch pattern I also won during OWOH. And my Chinese Brush Painting ATCs from a swap. All in all a very cool welcome home!

Cool tree bark

This is a picture of tree bark that Beth took while in Hawaii.

This is what I did to it using PSP's kaleidascope special effect tool.

Pretty cool, huh? There is bound to be more than one quilt or mixed media piece in that one picture...

They are arriving home today and I get to go home tomorrow! Should have some mail fun waiting for me as I won a couple of OWOH giveaways! Can't wait!

Art-ography #21

Two in one day - this fabric is stirring my creative juices. This is another piece of my sister's hand dyed fabric with a rose picture I took last summer layered on top.

Art-ography #20

This is a combination of a gorgeous piece of fabric from QST, an altered angel from Dover and an angel quote from quotegarden.com.

Art-ography #19

Background is an altered photograph (mine) of a flower garden in one of Chicago's parks. The "ladies" are an altered Dover royalty-free image.