Tangled Threads and Seaweed

Lazy Girl Relies on Memes for Blog Fodder

This week has been almost a total waste for me. It was one of those weeks where I had lots of errands and things to do every evening and had very little personal time.  I haven't gotten much done on several different fronts, and I'm a bit disappointed about it.  My only accomplishments were related to ironing - I pressed the customer's top and backing that I got on Sunday, and I fused a LOT of postcards.  Tonight we are going to a concert, and tomorrow I'm sewing all day with my girlfriends.  It will be Sunday (again) before I spend any significant time in the studio.  grumble grumble grumble   

Another meme, stolen from Fitzy's blog:

25 Questions
1. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be?
somewhere in Bali, or maybe Singapore
2. What's your favorite article of clothing?
pajamas
3. Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex?
eyes
4. What's the last CD that you bought?
George Strait 50 Greatest Hits
5. Where's your favorite place to be?
Underwater in the clear ocean
6. Where is your least favorite place to be?
in a crowd of people in a shopping mall
7. What's your favorite place to be massaged?
upper back
8. Strong in mind or strong in body?
Mind
9. What time do you wake up in the morning?
5:55 AM, with an alarm clock and two dogs prodding me
10. What is your favorite kitchen appliance?
microwave oven
11. What makes you really angry?
ridiculous government entitlement policies
12. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?
Acoustic Guitar
13. Favorite colour? Green
14. Which do you prefer...sports car or SUV?
SUV
15. Do you believe in an afterlife?
YES
16. Favorite children's book?
Lady and the Tramp
17. What is your favorite season?
I love the spring weather, but I love the fall colors too.
18. Your least favorite household chore?
cleaning the bathroom
19. If you could have one super power, what would it be?
read minds
20. If you have a tattoo, what is it? 
a cross
21. Can you juggle?
no
22. The one person from your past that you wish you could go back and talk to? 
my son
23. What's your favorite day?
the second day of any vacation - we've arrived and started having fun!
24. What's in the trunk of your car?
no trunk - in the back of my SUV is an umbrella, a jacket, and an ice scraper
25. Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger?
hamburger

So... steal it if you wanna. 

This weekend I'm going to sew and create, if it kills me...

WIP on Thursday and Other Musings

Latest Works
I'm posting a picture of le sock in progress... the yarn is some German stuff, and I'm knitting a 1x1 ribbed cuff/leg.  When I get another inch or so, I'll start working the heel.  That will be a new experience...

  I don't think its actually patterning correctly, either.  I wish I was clever enough to figure out how to cast on in a way that would guarantee the striping pattern intended.  The sock band on this yarn didn't have a picture but I am pretty sure this is supposed to be a striping design of some sort.  If I knew how to force the stripe, I'd unravel and re-knit this puppy.  Chances are good though, that sock #2 will have the same patterning on it since I don't know what I'm doing, eh? 

This is a quicky journal quilt in progress.  Kim over at Skybell Arts is doing a Friday Collage challenge again this year, with the January theme being Everyday Life.  I had admired her crossword quilt which she showed last week, as I do a crossword every day.  I had this partial block leftover from a swap project, and thought this might be a fun background for a journal quilt.  A cup of coffee and the puzzle are a standard part of my everyday life. 

  I don't think this is finished.  Of course it needs quilting, and therein lies my question....

When is it a collage?  When is it mixed media? When is it just a little quilt?   In my mind, this example is just a little quilt at the moment.  My interpretation of Kim's past Friday Collage quilts is that they can be made using a variety of techniques, including those which make it mixed media (fabric, paper, embellishments, applique) and that this makes it a collage - an assemblage of parts and pieces to express an idea.  There are no "rules" to follow and no guidelines to be met in this fun little weekly project.  So, in theory, this piece could be finished after quilting.  Next question....

How would you embellish this to enhance the design?  I'm stumped on this one, as in, if I wanted this to be a mixed media piece, I don't know where I would go next.  I am not interested in adding gratuitous bling to this little piece. If it doesn't need it, why add it?  At the same time, this piece already says "coffee and the puzzle are part of my everyday life" right now; would embellishment further communicate my fondness for the subject matter?

Let me show you a fantastic postcard I got the other day from Suzan Morgan, a member of the Art2Mail 19 postcard group. 

  "Beach Time"

The beadwork on this just blows me away.  It gives this little piece so much movement - its a perfect example (in my opinion) of effective embellishment.   

So, back to my coffee cup quiltlet...  I have brainstormed for a moment and come up with a few ideas.  Add some angelina to the steam wisps to give them some glitz.  Bead around the edges of the appliques (red on the cup, black or white on the steam) to give them some sparkle.  Bead some additional wispy lines amongst the coffee steam appliques. Stamp or emboss some coffee designs in paint on the background. Print some words enclosed in boxes (like crossword puzzle answers) on fabric and attach them to the quilt...like a coffee-house phrase or even a quote of some kind.  Add a cluster of white beads and a scrap of pink fabric as a torn packet of sweetner.  Tack a little silver spoon to the piece.  (see, its becoming more mixed media and collage-like)  Applique a big ol' donut with pink icing and a bunch of beady sprinkles to the piece, on top of a real napkin.  (Yeah, I wish a donut was part of my everyday life!)  Stamp coffee cup rings in brown ink on the piece? 

How do you know when a collage/journal quilt is finished?  I spent less than an hour fusing and appliqueing the base piece, and have thought about it for the next 10 hours!  I believe the original Journal Quilt group at QuiltArt was allowed one day to create their piece as part of the challenge.  I like the idea of spending just a few hours on these little pieces, simply because I see it as an exercise in spontaneous creativity and because I have other things to work on.  To me this is a way to play with an idea and have some fun.

I'd love to have some feedback.  I think I'm over-analyzing this, and that's the thing I want to get past - tell me how you decide what to do, and how you accomplish it in a certain amount of time.  Tell the truth, do you really spend a lot of time thinking about it before you actually execute the idea?  Or is it one of those things that starts flowing once you get started? 

Its a Lot of Little Things

I don't know if I'm a dandy-lion like Amy, or if I have ADD.  I am pretty easily distracted and tend to hop around from one thing to another, which explains my UFO situation.  Believe it or not, when I'm working on something, I am usually thinking about something else! This isn't the most efficient way of doing things. 

During my recent knit-a-thon, I finally figured out how to do my Arty Meme postcards.  I was trying to make the leaves look too "real", too natural, but now I have a plan. As I've said before, knitting is meditative for me, and I can work things out in my brain.  Watch for progress on those cards.  And by the way, after knitting 3 scarves in the past couple of weeks I am now working on a sock.  Woohoo!!!

I get a lot of e-mail, and sometimes it really bogs me down.  I'm in several machine-embroidery Yahoo groups, because so many digitizers sell their designs through these groups.  This is a much more affordable source of designs than some of the big commercial software designers.  The downside is the huge amount of e-mail they generate, including cross-postings on several groups.  More often than not I end up deleting a bunch of daily digests at one time, and go to the group site on Yahoo to actually skim through the latest posts.  I also belong to a couple of sewing/quilting Yahoo groups, which I recieve individual e-mails from because a lot of the members post pictures of their work, and picture attachments don't come through in the digest form. I like seeing what they are working on, so this is what works for these groups.  The thing I dislike the most about Yahoo groups (or any group/list) though, is the ones where about a half-dozen people are carrying on an off-topic sidebar discussion that never ends.  Oh, I get tired of trying to weed out the personal discussions from the ones with good information.  So, the whole point of this is that I always feel like I'm behind on reading my e-mails.  I don't think there's a solution to this (other than un-subbing a lot of these groups!) so I'm just venting.  There are so many groups that address things I'm interested in, and I wish I had more time to delve into them deeper - I'm only a lurker - I don't have time to keep caught up enough to participate in a conversation! 

See, I'm back to needing that 36 hour day.

At our sewing group meeting last week, a couple of the girls showed some great quilts in progress. Barbara had this one sandwiched (and its probably quilted and bound by now):

   

Kathy started this batik Yellow-Brick-Road quilt top at our last workday, and had finished it:

  She's not going to put a border on it - just meander quilt it and bind it.  Its twin sized.  Don't you love the colors??  I think its great. 

Here's a couple of bags that Kathy and Romelle have made.  I don't know anything about them - patterns, etc. - just wanted to share the pictures. 

   

I have to share my latest bargain-book find with you too - check out that price tag! 

  Contemporary Quilts by Sandra Meech.  This book is really inspiring.  I love the threadplay and the other ideas she shares. 

I'm rarely sick anymore, but yesterday I had one of those miserable throbbing cluster headaches behind my left ear.  My neck hurt, and my left eye hurt too.  I hate those things - its almost like I can feel my brain short-circuiting.  It really irritates me to know I'm not thinking clearly and that I can't stay focused when I have one of these headaches, so by the time I get home I'm pretty cross.  I had taken Migraine Excedrin while at work, and tried to take a nap when I got home but couldn't sleep.  I ended up taking one of Joe's pain pills to get to sleep last night.  I'm ok today, but it makes me so mad to think of what a wasted day yesterday was.  I couldn't focus on a book, or on the sock knitting, so I watched football, did laundry, and petted the dogs until I could go to bed.  I wish I knew what triggered these - I only have them once every couple of months (no, its not hormones, I don't have the parts anymore) and I never have figured out what causes them. 

See, I'm all over the place today, huh?  :)  Thanks for hanging in there with me...

W-I-P Wednesday and Fabulous Fibers

When I got home last night (at regular time, thankyouverymuch) I was still bummed out.  After feeding the dogs I decided to go play in the barn for awhile.  The gorgeous silk that I paintstik'd has been calling out to me for days.  After doing some quick measuring, I cut off 8 postcard sized pieces and started pulling fabrics to make some fusible-applique leaves.  Don't cut fabric on a cluttered table - we all know why, right?  You cut the stuff under the other stuff.  Duh.  It was another opportunity to make lemonade... I got one of my very favorite leafy fabrics and pieced in a hunk of it, and did another crazy cut and added some more.  I fused and thread painted, and couched down a hunk of the cat barf fibers.... and voila'.  It may not be quite finished (so it could be a WIP!) - I'm considering throwing a few beads on it for good measure, but witness my very first postcard:

    

Y'all, this took me about 2 hours because there was a LOT of hem-hawing around.  It takes awhile for me to make a decision.  What I don't like:  the appliqued leaves are in the center (bad composition) and the edges are a bit plain, and the end of the thread-painted stem shows (needs beads or another couched fiber).  What I do like:  the fuzzy fiber border (I've got a lot of yarn like this, yay!!) and the colors.  Isn't the fairy-frost fabric on the back pretty?  What is only so-so: the olive green thread. I like the color but its a very fine (50 wt) thread (I used it for all the stitching) and should have done two rounds of satin stitching on the edge to give it more substance.  Anyone willing to offer tips? Constructive criticism? How would you have done this one different? 

My next ones will be made with just the painted silk background - I only chopped up one by mistake.  I think there will be 3 leaves (hopefully not centered), and more of the same kind of fibers on it (maybe some more if I can dig some up).  I'm also thinking there's a need for some hand-embroidery like a dainty feather stitched vine...

I'm really studying the mixed media techniques in that big journal quilts book I bought at Houston this year.  Even though the 4" x 6" size is small, it may take a little more time to make the first few cards since I'm doing something new and different.  And if I have to do some handwork, which I love, it will take a few extra minutes.  :)  But oh, my gosh, do I ever have a head-full of ideas. 

The 12x12x12 challenge is a Quilt Studio Webring project for next year.   The concept: A 2007 challenge consisting of 12 quilted pieces in a 12x12 inch format due on the 12th of each month. You can read the guidelines by following the link above.  I think it will be fun - and the larger size offers a good amount of space for composition and detail.  I wonder if I could have a vague theme like "Mixed Media" rather than plan a year of some VERY specific theme? I have a lot of techniques I'd like to try, and this could be a good way to learn.  I like the theme that Fran chose - Nature Through The Year.  This obviously requires more thought; there's still plenty of time to make that decision.

To wrap this up, I'll show you the poinsettia I bought this year for my office:

  As you can see by the few green leaves on this baby, I'm well on my way toward killing it off.  :)  That watering thing is so important!!!

He Has a Job

My little boy formally accepted the job offer from Major Oil Company yesterday.  Whee! He's now officially "grown up".  He graduates from college in 11 days and will be moving to Bartlesville, about 100 miles down the road from his current digs in Stillwater.  This time next month, he'll be living in the first home I don't have to pay for!  (bad grammar but an awesome thought) Obviously I'm as excited as he is about this.  I'm proud of him for reaching his goals, but its really more than that - its seeing him make his dreams come true that really stirs my heart.

Its kind of funny; he was all set to take the job with Major Consulting Firm and move to Austin.  They made a verbal offer and told him he'd be getting an e-mail.  He checked with them several times during the week it was supposed to come, and they kept telling him he should be getting it soon.  He asked some questions about the job that couldn't be answered by the person he was talking to, but they couldn't give him the right connections to answer those questions either; just that someone would call him back. During this same timeframe, he decided to dig a little deeper into details of the job with Major Oil Company and got answers straight away.  When he was telling me about this over the weekend, his decision was made simply because one company had their stuff together and the other company didn't seem to be as well organized.   

Look at what Debra S. sent me in the Arty Meme exchange:

   Isn't this a beautiful journal?  I am crazy about it... I know exactly how I'll use it - I'm going to practice my rubber-stamp art in this book.  It will be perfect to catalog all my rubber stamps, and I can do some color work (ink, pencils, etc) on the images too.  Thanks, Debra! 

Here's my newest rubber stamp -

   Its a terrible picture, isn't it!  I don't know what other fiber art card artists use to mark the backs of their cards, but I bought this one on e-bay. I have searched the internet for "postcard back rubber stamp" with very limited success.  I don't know what this is really called... I've seen the cards marked "postcard" in different ways.  Some are really pretty and look very vintage - others are quite plain.  I guess this isn't important in the whole scheme of things, its what is on the other side that counts.  :)   

Sunday Night Summary

Thanksgiving 2006 is just about over, and it was one we won't soon forget at Chez Seaweed.  I thought of so many titles for this post.....  "In Which Bella Gets a Hook in Her Eye",  "Shiva Stiks and Cat Barf",  "The Original Bread", "Fun With Fusibles" .... where to begin?

The Original Bread:  We had Thanksgiving Day lunch with our friends at the Coffee Ranch.  The family recently lost their 19 year old son and brother, and decided to do something different on this first thanksgiving without Chase.  (anyone who has suffered such a loss knows why "something different" is so important)  There were almost 30 family and friends, and the food was righteously good. We brought two deep-fried turkeys, and Kim's brother made some kick-a$$ bread pudding with bourbon sauce.  Grandma K. makes the most incredible raised yeast rolls, aka "The Original Bread".  It seems that she's made these forever. At some point in the past someone got her a breadmaker - a thoughtful gift, but the bread just didn't turn out the same.  Chase asked Grandma K. one year if she could make "The Original Bread", and the name stuck. Of course, the yeast rolls have been made by hand ever since. 

Bella and the Hook:  Bella is our almost Grand-doggie, a sweet little mixed breed with some Boston Terrier in her.  Isn't she cute?

On Saturday, we gathered at my sister's house to have a late Thanksgiving meal together. The meal was fine - a delicious brown-sugar crusted ham, cream-cheese mashed potatoes, our favorite cranberry relish, and delicious pumpkin pie with French Vanilla Cool-Whip.  We stuffed ourselves, and it was so good.  My sister has two beagles who both love to play with Tara's little dog Bella. All of a sudden, Bella starts shrieking and she can't seem to get away from Boo.  Kevin and Tara get to Bella about the same time that Mark grabs Boo's collar.  It was a freak occurrence - the "S" hook that held Boo's tag on her collar had caught Bella below the eye and had pierced her lower eyelid - and Bella was hung on Boo's tag. In the process of releasing the buckle on Boo's collar, Mark's finger got dislocated.  As soon as the collar was off, Kevin slipped the hook out of Bella's eyelid.  I loaded the kids and Bella into the car and we took Bella to the emergency vet to be checked, though she seemed to be just fine as soon as she got loose from that hook.  She got some antibiotics and some ointment, and though the spot weeped a little blood and swelled up, she acted like normal.  Fortunately the eyeball wasn't even scratched.  When we got back to the house, Mark had put his finger back into place and was nursing a strong drink.  (my sister says this has happened several times before and he has learned to fix it himself - yowch)  Those kids are SO not ready to have children - they both totally freaked out.  The vet had never seen anything like it - it was truly a one in a million kind of thing.  I think we'll go back to playing Scrabble after the meal next year!

Jana, Boo, and Rascals

Fun With Fusibles:  today was a day for arts and crafts in the white barn out back.  I decided to put together the two Sten-Source nativity wallhangings that I picked up at the quilt show in Houston. (I had been searching for them for several days and finally found them!) I used the discontinued multi color batik in the first one:

  I love this! The instructions tell you to be sure the star is on a yellow spot to indicate its glow.  I had a yard of fabric and really did play around with it, laying the laser-cut applique on it every which way before deciding how to place it.  This is layered with backing and batting and is ready for quilting and binding.  I think I'll outline the shapes with monofilament and then do a fused black binding. 

This is the second one:

  I love this one too!  I used fabrics from my mother's vast collection of Fossil Fern fat quarters (you too can get a monthly shipment from Cotton Club). I had a blast making this one.  It was fun to pick out colors and lay it out.  The fusing is a little more tricky on this one, as you lay the laser-cut applique face-down and fuse the pieces to it from the back side.  Its not difficult as long as you use a pressing cloth and follow the directions.  I have it layered and ready to quilt also.  Another tip - I used the basting spray to layer these up instead of pin-basting.  These are small - 17" x 23" approximately - which is a perfect size to use the basting spray. I'll probably put a fusible binding on this one too. I think these are great.  The laser-cut stencils are $14.99 - I would never try to make this design myself - the price is reasonable for the amount of work involved in making the applique. I'll definitely make more of these; in fact I was wishing I had picked up a couple more of them in Houston. 

Shiva Stiks and Cat Barf:  After finishing the two nativity fusibles, I was still hankering to make something fun, so I pulled out the Shiva Stiks and the workbook I picked up at Laura Murray's booth in Houston.  I also bought some transfer plates (mazes and leaves) and some beautiful dark blue-black silk to play with.  I had a great time playing with these - I did some gold rubbings of a maze plate, and then some gold and blue leaves. 

 

This is hard to take a good picture of - the fabric is so much richer in person.  The sheen of the silk reflects too much to capture the beauty of this fabric.  After this cures for a few days, I may put an additional layer of color on it in some places - more leaves - and when its fully cured and set, I'll fuse it to the fast-2-fuse postcard backing and embellish with the Cat Barf fibers:

  There are some really beautful fibers in this hank - a copper eyelash, the yellow-green loopy stuff, the purple fun-fur - but the whole wad looks like something the cat barfed up.  :)  There may end up being some applique on this too...  My next project in-the-making is a piece of light beige and grayish blue batik that I'm going to do some ink-stamping on.  I hit a great sale (50% off) on rubber stamps at Joann's Etc. on Saturday, but that is another story for another day. 

Waitin' for the Weekend

Ah, how sweet... its Friday!  I'm ready for some time to play. 

I didn't get to quilt or sew last night - I play cards with a group of ladies one Thursday each month, and last night was the night.  It was late when I got in (after 9:30 - oh, my!) so I headed straight for bed.  Tonight looks doubtful for sewing too, since Friday is date night.  We go out to eat every Friday night at the same steakhouse (its Prime Rib night) and then to the coffee house for pie and to visit with friends who hang out there too.  Heck, throw in a senior citizen discount and we could be your parents! 

Tomorrow is Sewing On Saturday (SOS) with my little group of quilter friends.  We do this once a month too - I've mentioned this before - and this Saturday will be a UFO day.  The little table mats will be going with me tomorrow, and will (dear God, I so hope) be finished and bound when the afternoon is over.  I do have a plan - they all have large enough backs to be folded forward and machine stitched to finish.  I've got a fresh pack of Misty Fuse to do the pumpkins with, and I might even slap a few leaves on one or two of them to see how that looks.  Now that I've got them almost finished, I am sure of one thing.  My sister will suggest that they should have been placemats and that she should have gotten at least 8 of them instead of one; she will also wonder why they are tall instead of wide. (portrait instead of landscape layout) My friends will love theirs, and hang them on their cubicle walls for decoration until someone decides to get the Christmas decorations out.  Tara's mom and sister are unknowns - I think they'll like them but who knows.  And I'm keeping one - and I will be thrilled with it!  :) 

I think I've found my multicolor batik for the laser-cut Nativity applique panel.  While surfing, I found Batiks Plus, who has the best selection of batiks I've seen - they even have discontinued batik prints.  I chose a Hoffman bright multicolor, then also ordered a pastel multicolor "just in case".  They're every bit of $9-$10 per yard, but I've got that burden off my mind now, and that's worth a lot to me. 

I see from looking at the Quilt Studio webring home page that we're going to have Collage Fridays coming up soon.  I looked at the monthly themes and they seem interesting!  I think I'll enjoy having a little challenge project to work on. 

I've also seen some people working on Christmas Holiday quilty projects - lookin' good! - but I'm not real big into Christmas decorating, so don't be watching for a tree skirt or stocking from me.  :)  Oh, I might make a table runner for my (picky) sister, but I repeat, I DON'T decorate.  I just like looking at everyone else's pretty decorations!  (y'all will post pictures, right? hint, hint)

Has anyone started working on their Arty Meme pieces yet?  I've got a bunch of ideas, and hope to start playing around with that project on Sunday.  I want to play with the Shiva Stiks so bad I can't stand it.  I'm going to do some texture rubbings on a piece of charcoal colored fabric and see how that looks - of course it will have to cure - so I'll have time to decide what to do next.

Stitch on....

More Pictures

OK, I've got some various photos to share from the Houston quilt festival and some tidbits of thoughts, in no particular order.

First, here's my quilting example from the Pam Clarke class, which was background fill patterns. This was a lot of fun to do.  I need to cut off the edge and put some black binding on it to finish.  Sorry about cutting off the top of the picture - don't know what happened...

 

   Feathers from Linda Taylor's class - lots of fun!

  Sample of freehand filler patterns from Sue Patten's class.  This was a great class.  I learned a lot and it was inspiring.  I'm looking forward to using this on some quilts.

  Fun hand-dyes for an art quilt.

  A couple of pantograph patterns.

  Yummy threads....

  Basic lights.

  A yard of gorgeous Asian fabric and some coordinating fat quarters.

  Some slightly strange western fabrics.

No picture, but I got a couple of those pre-cut stained-glass nativity wallhangings made by Sten-Source . Of course, they need a bright multicolor batik or hand-dyed background, and nothing in my stash will work.  And strangely, I'm not finding what I want in the Hancock of Paducah catalog or by searching the web.  All the hand-dyes I've found are stripes of different colors, not blended or mottled.  So, I don't know what to do.  I was considering making and giving these for gifts, so I hope I find suitable fabric soon.

We had weird weather today.  It was overcast but not really cold, and late in the afternoon we had strong wind and dust blowing.  Now its chilly, and the wind is still blowing.  Its supposed to do this tomorrow too.  Yuck, I do NOT like winter.

I've "discovered" rubber stamps.  Oh, these are such darling little things!  I'm fascinated with them, and the potential to use them in some great mixed-media artwork.  Its so funny - I've been reading Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts for a long time, and have been interested in scrapbooking for awhile now - but am just now "getting it".   I'm blaming it on my recent postcard acquisitions, especially since I've bought some nifty ones with leaves on them.  I'm itching to try using some of these - I've got some neat ideas for themes and just need some time to play with them.

Has your mind ever gone blank?  That's what has happened to me.  I had several thoughts when I started this post, and they have gone bye-bye.  Too many distractions - dogs, TV, and a book I want to read.  I read a book by Dean Koontz a long time ago and thought it was just too creepy, so I have avoided his work since then.  Well, last week I read a book by him and actually liked it, so I bought another one and have just started it.  Maybe it was just that one book that was turning me off... we will see.  The creepy one was "Intensity", and the one I just finished is "Sole Survivor".  Now I'm reading "Forever Odd" - we'll see how that goes. 

Arty Meme - Who Wants Some?

Hey y'all - who wants to play with me?  I'm coming off a postcard "high" from my trip to Houston and am inspired to make fiber art.  I'd like to make some fiberart postcards to swap. I read about this "pay it forward" swap on Deb Spincic's blog a few days ago (and I'm quoting her post):

"The Arty Meme is a chance to have a piece of needleart from a fellow needlewoman!

The idea is to offer 5 pieces of your work on your blog. The first 5 people to ask for your work will get one of the pieces.

Her obligation to the Meme is that she must then announce the meme on her blog and offer 5 of her pieces to others.

The exchange of artwork continues. . .

Mediums, methods, execution, deadlines are up to the offering needlewoman! Have fun."

So, would anyone like to have a personally made postcard?  With fabric, threads, fibers, cool quilting and/or other arty embellishments on it?  Just post a reply and then e-mail me your name & address.  I will consider special requests, mostly if you tell me you hate clowns or are allergic to wool or some such thing.  Anyone else want to play?

Fiberart For A Cause

I would imagine almost everyone in the quilting world is familiar with Virginia Spiegel's Fiberart For A Cause benefitting the American Cancer Society.  If not, click the link and you can learn all about it. While I was in Houston, I obtained a beautiful collection of cards, made by some outstanding fiber artists.  Enjoy the pics!

Autumn Rain by Suzanne Cooke

  Autumn by Pat Thompson

  Pin Oak by Kathy Stewart

  Foliage by Nancy Dobson

  Red Maple and Columbine by Brenda Jennings

  Hors D'oeuvres #3 by Cynthia St. Charles

  Untitled by Carol Straus (I'm calling this one Golden Morning)

  Bird of Paradise by Ruth Powers

  River dreams by BJ Parady

  Golden Ways by Suzanne Larsen

  Crazy Quilt #2 by Amy Munson

  Canopy of Leaves #2 by Sue Reno

I am over the moon with joy to have this wonderful collection of fiberart!