Christmas Roses

OK--so I haven't finished any kind of a quilt in the last few months. It's been busy at work. The holidays were hectic. I had other stuff to make and finish, none of it particularly artistic. But--since I've done a little bit of floral design, I thought I'd make a centerpiece for my Dickens Christmas party this last Saturday.

Since the Dickensians were really into roses, I got gorgeous red roses from my friend Monique, owner of Rose's Flowers in Wauwaotsa, WI (http://www.rosesflowershop.net/ --a shameless plug...) along with some ornamental cedar branches. I also used a few pheasant feathers, ostrich feathers, pine cones and faux berries that I had lying around.

So, this is how it came out:

This was atop a four-foot tall glass tower that I put in the center of the table. I wanted something spectacular that didn't take up any room on the table, as we were serving dinner family style and needed the table space. I like the way it turned out. Maybe a new career for me??

Christmas Wallhanging Contest

One of the nice quilters at the Quilts Your Way forum mentioned this website and their Christmas contest. Since this is generally for traditional quilters, and I have a lot of traditional quilts laying around, I thought I'd enter. http://www.quiltinggallery.com/ I also have their logo here on my blog.
The small wallhanging I entered was one I made last year during the fall Reedsburg retreat. I found the pattern and fabric at one of my favorite shops, Homespun Fabrics in Endeavor, Wisconsin. http://www.homespunfabrics.net/
It's a very cool place in a small outbuilding next to a big barn on a working farm. The owner and her daughter design patterns under the name "Contrary Wife Designs". I found the most gorgeous and elegant Christmas fabrics there--way nicer than anything I've found here in the "big city".
Its one of the few times I've ever bought a pattern and fabrics all at the same time, and actually followed the pattern! It was paper pieced, and the pieces were sewn together in pie fashion. It's the first time I've ever done that as well, and I have new-found respect to those who do kaleidoscope and Lonestar quilts. I confess I had to beat the middle into submission with my iron...having all those seams coming together was a real challenge. So--I looked at that as a "design opportunity", and added the jewel embellishment.

Its all about the dogs!

I have finally been catching up with some emails and postings and such, and discovered that Lynn Krawczak, fiber artist and curator of the "Breaking Traditions" quilt exhibits, has posted pictures and information on her blog about the "Home" exhibition shown last month at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan. Read it here:
http://www.btaqe.blogspot.com/

For me, it is very exciting to have my quilt, Beau and Georgie's Excellent Adventure, hanging with all the rest. It was a fun piece to do, and I was happy to donate the quilt for such a good cause, A Place To Bark:
http://www.aplacetobark.com/

On Lynn's blog, you'll also find stories of people and their rescued animals. There's a story about out dogs, Gracie and Georgie, who were rescued by two different animal shelters and found good home with Tommy and me. Read that here:
www.btaqe.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-beginnings-sunday_21.html

Tom saw the pictures of the exhibit and told me I am now an internet celebrity! Hardly, but I feel one step closer to calling myself an artist!

Eye of the Quilter

The good folks at Quilts, Inc. have a great idea for a special exhibit at the upcoming International Quilt Festival in Houston. Instead of quilts, they are calling for photographs that inspire quilters. I wasn't paying much attention to it, but since today was the deadline, I did send in one photo. It's one that I posted several weeks ago--a February sunrise that I manipulated in Photoshop.

I have a few more that I considered, but I love this one. Here are more!

I've already started on a quilt using the February sunrise. The others...I don't know. Stay tuned....

"Darjeeling"

My new quilt, "Darjeeling" is finished. I delivered it to the Anaba Tea Room yesterday. http://www.anabatearoom.com/. It will be part of group show by the Milwaukee Art Quilters. The theme is "To a Tea", and all the quilts are inspired by...tea!
At first, this theme was not particularly exciting to me--I don't drink a lot of tea. Coffee gal here. Also, at the last couple of meetings, a lot of the members were showing their quilts, most of which involved tea-dyed fabrics. They were all gorgeous and I was rather intimidated by the creativity and workmanship. But, again, that's something I don't do, either--tea dyeing. I had nothing in my head for this theme, until I saw a number of pictures of workers picking tea in both India and China, and was inspired by those. I chose to do a quilt of an Indian woman, mostly because I love the saris they wear. (So, really, this quilt was inspired not by tea, but by fashion!)

Doing a portrait quilt is something I've never done before, but I wanted to figure it out. I got a lot a great instruction by reading a couple of books. I started with "The Art Quilt Workbook", by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. http://janedavila.blogspot.com/ Such a great source for a beginner art quilter such as myself. Then I got a copy of "Portraits for Fabric Lover" by Marilyn Belford http://www.marilynbelford.com/content/start/ and used a lot of those techniques. I learned a lot about threadpainting from that book, mostly that it's really fun!!

Of course, I appealled to the vast knowledge of the people on the QuiltArt mailing list wen I got stuck.

The background, basket and most of the leaves are commercial batiks, and her scarf is also a commercial quilt frabirc. The rest of the fabrics are scraps of different silks I had lying around. While choosing them, I found fabrics from which I had made ball skirts, tunics and vests. Pieces of my entire "after five" wardorbe are in this quilt!

The sari is accented with a blue trim I had, and a piece of gold trim that was sent to me by Janice Paine-Dawes (see the above post). Thanks, Janice. I also used a bit of the green fabric I had dyed in my class last week (see the post before that). Thanks, Nancy!

Detail:

I'm happy with this. But I am most excited about actually having a piece, for sale, in a gallery with real artists.
If it sells, I'll not be able to live with myself I'll be so ecstatic! Crossing my fingers...

More Dyed Fabric Pics...and a nice surprize!

I have another picture of the cool fabrics I dyed in my class last week with Nancy Kimpel. As I mentioned before, we dyed one fabric in one color (the yellow), did some dye diluting (the greens) and then used two colors on one piece of fabric (the green and yellow together). I have all sorts of stuff in my head for which I can use these.

Also, a few weeks ago, I offered two Unlimited Possibilities magazines to the first person who sent me an email. The winner was Janice Paine-Dawes, an art quilter from Arkansas, http://www.blogger.com/profile/07627735016408777385 . She (being the sweet person that she is!) then sent me a package chock full of fun things: tulle, FQs, embroidery floss, vintage rick-rack (which is the most fabulous warm gold...) and a length of gold trim cut from an Indian sari. That trim was perfect for my tea quilt. Thanks so much, Janice!

Finally I can breathe again....and another sneak peek

So I've been working like a crazy woman on this portrait quilt for the MArQ group show at the Anaba tea room which opens next week. The quilts are due at the gallery by Thursday at the very latest. Again--I am the queen of "just under the wire".
But...it is finished! And I can finally take a breath.

However, I have not yet taken pics of the whole thing, yet. They will come later. Until then I can post another sneak peek. Here is a couple of detail pictures of the tea lady's eye and cheek, just fused and then with threadpainting. This is the first time I've done anything like this, and I'm pretty happy with the result:

Last week I took a break from working on the tea lady, and attended a fabric dyeing class given by another member of MArQ--Nancy Kimpel. She was gracious enough to host a class in the gorgeous basement of her lovely new home out in Lake Country. She has a studio (and a stash) of which I am very envious, but that's another story.

Anyway, I've never dyed anything save for a pair of black gauzy pants that had faded, so it was a real treat to learn this. Nancy explained the low immersion process very well. First, we did a fat quarter in a single color (I chose yellow). Then we dyed a series of FQs in increasingly diluted dyes (I chose green). The last dyeing we did was using two or more colors on one FQ ( I chose yellow and green. I must have been hungry for bibb lettuce.)

I was very excited to get them home, throw them in the dryer and iron them. I even used the darkest green already--in my tea lady quilt!

I think I'll be dyeing in the future. Ha! Oh...I could inject a whole pile of "dyeing/dying" puns in here right now, but I shall restrain myself.

Breaking Traditions "Home"

Since tomorrow is the postmark deadline for submissions to the Breaking Traditions 2009 Exhibit, I finished and packed up my 12"x12" quilt...today. Just under the wire as usual. I've been working on my tea-picker portrait so much, that I almost completely forgot about the Breaking Traditions quilt. The idea for it has been in my head for months, but I had never put it together. I finally confessed this to my husband, Tom, who had noticed I was getting crabbier and crabbier.

So, for his own self-preservation, as it's not a pretty sight when I am moody, he helped me make plan for completing this quilt. The motivation for me, besides wanting to contribute to a worthy cause and having my work shown at a big show, was the threat of having to cook for him for a week (!) if I did not reach my daily goals. It worked, because each day I made sure I finished my task! I'll do anything so I don't have to cook. Anything.

The theme this year was "Home", and since the exhibit is benefit ting A Place to Bark, an animal shelter, my "home" project had to include my dogs! It started with three pictures I had taken over the last couple months. I printed them on silk, and fused them onto a background made up of green grass fabric, and blue sky fabric. I sandwiched it, then did some thread painting and free-motion quilting. The result was a silly little quilt called "Beau and Georgie's Excellent Adventure: Up on the Woof". It features the dogs ON our house with pics of some of my garden flowers around the house; hydrangeas, clematis and violets.

I also made a tree out of some batiks and did some thread painting on the dogs, the trees and the flowers. I am generally happy with it. I am disappointed that the shadow of the green fabric can be seen behind the house, but this is the first time I've printed on silk. And I did that because my (old crappy) printer has a very hard time with the printable cotton, and since I didn't have time to run and do my printing at the office, I used silk. I love it--it prints so easily and nicely, but it has its drawbacks, as I learned.

I've included some detail pics, too. I enjoyed doing the thread work--I will be doing that a LOT in the future.

Sneak Peek

I've been working on a quilt for the Milwaukee Art Quilters group, for an exhibit entitled "To a Tea". It is a potrait quilt of a cheerful Indian woman picking tea leaves. I'm afraid I may have bitten off more than I can handle...but if it all works, and I can get it all together...(and with all due modesty) it'll be really cool!!

So I took a couple pics of the hands and the little pieces that make up the highlights and shadows. And that brings me to my problem.

Usually, after fusing fabric pieces, I stitch around each piece to anchor it to the background. However, this is the first time I've had such teeny little pieces. How do I stitch them down?

These fabrics are all silks--some dupoini, some sueded silk and some crepe-back satin, and even though they are all backed with fusable interfacing, I'm afraid that the little pieces will either ravel, or be completely obluterated by the stitching, even with a very fine needle.

I've thought of covering the areas with tulle then stitching over that--but I've never done that. What what color shall I use? How is the stitching done? Yikes!!! So much I have to learn.

So here are the pictures. The pieces are fused to each other, but not to the background. They are on my teflon sheet; the stripes are the ironing board (cheery, eh?)

I will consider any and ALL suggestions as to how to do this. I know there are people out there who can teach me!

Old News

Yesterday, a couple of my very good friends, Reet and Mari-Ann, took the drive up from Chicago to visit with Juta and me. We sat and chatted, Reet took us out for lunch, we ate a lot and had a great time. It was nice to see them again; it had been a few months.

Reet reminded me of a little project I started last winter--one in which she was kind of involved! My husband and I were at her house for a party back in January. I love her home, as it is filled with wonderful artwork done by several artists friends. When I read about Lynda Thompson's postcard challenge a few weeks later, I thought of one of Reet's paintings. The challenge was to make fiber postcards featuring a raven, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Edgar Alan Poe's birth. The painting I thought of is one of blue/black birds soaring in an orange background. To me they looked like ravens, but they are swallows. Even so, I asked Reet for a few pics of it, so I could print them on fabric and play with the images for the challenge.

As it turns out, I didn't use the images. But I did create a postcard with words printed on fabric, dark chiffon on which I painted trees, some thread painting and, finally, appliqued ravens. It's called "Raven Go Now". I realized yesterday, when Reet reminded me of it, that I never posted a pic here, though I did post it on the challenge Yahoo group. Awwwww my first fiber postcard...I'm so proud...*sniff*

So, there it is, then. I still have those swallow images; eventually, something will come of them.

Quilting, but not "art"

Lately, I have had a hard time actually creating any "art". My creative spirit has been squashed a little. I need to fill that vessel again, but I'll talk about that later. Sometime.
Anyway, when I feel like this, I fall back on just spending time in my sewing room. I've been soritng scraps, pulling out stuff for a future yard sale, organizing other stuff.

Before I thought about doing art quilts, I made quilts for other people. Making quilts for friends, family, special occasions, has always been a big motivation for me. As I make the quilt, I always think about the person for whom it is, an that helps me get out of "myself".

So I made a quilt for a good friend of mine. I asked him a while ago, as a joke, if I should make a quilt for him. He emphatically said "NO!", probably because he thinks all quilts are flowery and Grandma-like. So I made one with fabric featuring tires, spark plugs, gears and tools. I can't post a picture yet, as I need to quilt and bind it, and then give it to him! I don't want to spoil the surprise! But I made the top in one weekend, and it feels good to start and finish something.

Something I can post is the Spring Mini-Quilt I made for a swap sponsored by the Quilting Bloggers group (see the logo to the right). I'm a little late, as the quilt should have been mailed out by the 21st of June, the day of the Summer Solstice. I used a pattern I bought years ago, and put a little bit of my own spin on it. The pattern showed three panels like this, all of them rectangular. I made just one panel, and curved the top to make it look like a niche in a wall. I thought it was a good idea, until I tried to put that border on it! But--I figured it out, and it turned out well. I did a little bit of thread painting on it, and added a few crystals on it to mimic dew.

I also have a detail shot:

I'll pop this in the mail in the next few days, and it'll be on its way to my swap partner in the UK. I hope she likes it!
Since this is a swap, I received a cute little quilt from Chris Wheeler of We Love Quilting (http://www.welovequilting.com/)

She made an adorable Grandma's Fan doll-size quilt for the swap, and I was the lucky recipient.

I'll be hanging it in my sewing room (if I ever get it painted). Thank you, Chis! It's darling.

Even though I am not working on art this very moment, doing these quilt projects has restored my soul a little.

As does seeing a great sunset. A few months ago I posted a pic of a gorgeous winter sunrise taken from my backyard.

http://underthediningroomtable.blogspot.com/2009/04/rainy-saturday.html

Yesterday there was a breath-taking sunset, of which I took a pic from my front yard! I think I'll be manipulating this picture, as I did the other one, and it'll turn out to be a good companion piece to the sunrise.

The gears in my head continue to turn...

Out of the kitchen and into the garden but not in the studio

The last few days have been consumed by the project of installing an hardwood floor in our circa 1939 kitchen. We bought the floorboards last week (they are pre-finished birch) , ripped out all the layers of tile and vinyl, and began laying the floor yesterday. It was tough for me due to my bad back (The Spine in the Form of a Question...Mark) but I was able to help a great deal. I even did all the cutting on our brand new miter saw. Power tools!

The whole story is on my other blog: http://www.itsmetonim.blogspot.com/.

Today we started in again, but my poor body could just not keep up. So I was kicked out of the kitchen.

Since then I've been mostly sitting quietly, listening to the air compressor while Tom finishes the floor. I'm not even able to do anything in my studio! I did manage to take some pictures in the garden. The hostas are suddenly huge, and I caught them just after they were watered. I love the texture and the water drops. I'm sure these will end up in a new quilt somehow.

Scrappity Scrappy Scraps

I got some time in my work room today, and did I sew anything? No. Did I paint, or sketch, or think about any of my myriad undone projects? No.

I sorted scraps. Piles of scraps. Scraps I've been saving for probably seven or eight years, most of which are these itty-bitty pieces that I would never actually use!

So I threw the bitty bits away. I saved bigger pieces to cut into 3" squares. I saved the batiks and hand-dyes for art quilts and applique. The biggest pieces I folded and will keep for future project. And the pieces I know I'll never use, I packaged up and will sell at a future yard sale.

This freed up a whole corner of my studio! I feel as though I took a good step towards organization. A baby step.

And actually, it as fun thing to do. I took a little trip through time, as I found pieces of the quilts I've made over the years. The baby quilts, the Christmas gifts and projects, the quilts I made for sick friends and family occasions.

Tomorrow, I have a huge drawer full of more scraps to sort. But it'll be easier, since I did the hard part today.

The only thing is, I need a way to store the pieces of fabric that are bigger than little scraps, but not as big as a fat quarter. (Does this make sense?) I have a nifty storage unit for my FQs, and I have that nice big drawer for yardage, but it's the in-between pieces that I'm finding difficult to store.

If anyone out there has a suggestion, please let me know. I"m stymied!

The Red Shoes

Today, I watched one of my favorite movies: The Red Shoes, about a small ballet company in Monte Carlo. It was made in 1948 and almost every scene is a work of art! The set decoration and the costumes...fabulous. The direction is really dramatic, making for the best shots of the actors, all of which are super-stylish. I especially love the scenes in the Paris hotel room after Boris leaves Monte Carlo looking for his ballerina.
So, I did a weird thing, and took a picture of the scene on the TV. The paneled walls in in this room are painted China blue with gold moldings. All the room accents are also gilded. Then there are these huge purple drapes and rose-colored chairs. All in heavy velvet. Boris himself is wearing a red velvet smoking jacket, and at one point in the scene, he tears open the top button to reveal a gold satin lining. The whole movie is great eye-candy, as well as a great story. I need to make something in those colors. Or...take a trip to Monte Carlo right now!
Oh...I suppose I broke some copyright law by taking pictures of these images while they were transmitted to my TV set. If so, don't tell anyone, OK?

What's blooming?

I haven't done anything on any of my art quilt projects for over a week. I am so distracted by MIL in the hospital, our sick dog, Beau (who is better now than last week) , garden chores and who knows what else. I think I have SO many things to do and finish, that I'm just paralyzed when I think about it. I end up doing nothing except what I am very comfortable with and don't have to really think about--like my traditional quilting.

But--our flower beds are shaping up and things are finally blooming. Here are some pictures of pansies, lilacs, columbines and bleeding hearts. Lots of purple things, much like my Flower BOM!

All these pictures cheer me up and remind me of the beauty of Spring, even when I'm losing my mind.

More BOM Blocks

I made two more blocks for the Flower BOM on which I've been working for two years now...

I trashed the 14" block I made a couple weeks before and made another one.

This pattern is called Duck Foot in Mud--not really a flower block. But, I used my floral fabrics and the green, and now they do look like flowers.

I also made another 6" block--a little basket block. Once the quilt is completed and quilted, I'll fill the basket with 3-D flowers made from one of the florals and embellished with beads.

So--all the main blocks are done now. With the setting I want to do, I need to make about 36-38 small 4" filler blocks. They will be a number of diferent patterns; I have to figure that out yet...

Unfortunately, I can't work on this project for a while, as I need to get going on several challenges whose deadlines are looming. I need to make four fiber art pieces in the next three weeks. Wish me luck!

Musical Tastes

I always listen to music while I'm sewing or painting or beading; generally light classical and baroque, or "New Age"--what Tom refers to as "yuppie elevator music". It's soothing and calming and not very demanding to the ear. Perfect for letting my mind wander and concentrate on my project.

However, sometimes I really want to hear some hard rock. Then, out comes the old stuff: Led Zepplin, Ten Years After, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, The Doors.

In high school, I always loved the hard rock when all my girlfriends were into Joni Mitchell or Neil Diamond or other "soft rock" music. Yawn. The boys always admired my taste in music--it was a lot like theirs! Now that I'm a 50-something mom, I still love it. Is that odd?

The other day I ran across a CD that my younger daughter, Julie, recorded and gave to me for Christmas a long time ago. "Mom's Rockin' Christmas". It has songs by Puddle of Mud, Linkin Park, Limp Biskit, Tool and other 90s bands. Most are long gone, but they had some great one-hit wonders. It even has a great head-banging version of "Smooth Criminal" by Atom Ant.

Thanks, Julie. It reminds me of my high-school days; different bands and different sounds (and definitely different words--I had forgotten how many F-bombs are on that disc...), but the teenage angst never changes. Oh, and don't tell the BMI people--they'll get mad....

Changes a-coming

I've been very unsettled the last week or so. Ever since my "faux heart attack". (Thanks to Jeanne McBrayer for that term...I've used it alot.) Even so, I've managed to be sorta busy. Tom and I worked in the garden all weekend, saw a concert given by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra where they did the 1st Violin Concerto by Bruch with Frank Almond as the soloist, attended the monthly Milwaukee Art Quilters Group meeting, shopped for a new white cardigan to replace the one on which I splashed tomato sauce and bought shoes instead, and attended a meeting of the planning committee for the Grace Foundation fund-raising event. http://www.givinggrace.org/
I managed to get into the workroom only once, and worked on another block for the Flower BOM. Which I should have been working on any number of projects for assorted challenges instead, but did not. Too distracted. I have a million quilts flying in and out of my head--every time I see an unusual object, a sunset, a bird. I just can't seem to settle down and work on a one of them!!

One reason I'm so gefroozled is that we have some big changes coming--my mother-in-law, Juta, will be moving in here next week. She is 90 years old, and can no longer live on her own. She is not happy about being dependent on us, and we're not particularly happy about disrupting our household, but you do things for your mom...She's from the old country, and taking care of family is just what we do. Kinda like drinking vodka. Its just expected.
So she's been busy packing all her stuff, and we've been busy getting a room ready for her.
I hope Juta will be comfortable here, especially now that its spring. She always enjoyed sitting in the backyard and bird-watching, and she'll be able to do that again. Well, we're family and it'll all be OK.

Today a small storm rolled through the area right before sunset. I watched the dark clouds float off to the east just as the sun popped out in the west, and lit up the trees behind our yard. Then as it got darker, I was surprized to see a beautiful almost-full moon.
I guess tomorrow will be a brand new day with fresh hope. Here's a pic.


Another quilt flying into my head...

My Prize and Go Red for Women

In looking over all my recent correspondence, I discovered that I neglected to post about the neat art quilt I won on Jeanne Turner McBrayer's blog: http://allthingsquilty.blogspot.com/.

She had a drawing a few weeks ago and I won! She sent me the coolest small quilt--it's called "Tropical Waters:, and it, indeed, reminds me of the Caribbean (I was there once...) With it she included an ATC and her calling card, embellished with yummy blue and purple fibers.

So, thank you VERY much, Jeanne, for holding a drawing. I am just thrilled with my prize! Also,please forgive my tardiness in thanking you publicly.

Well... I haven't been in my workroom in a few days, but I have a somewhat good excuse. I had a little chest pain episode Wednesday, and they put me in the hospital! What a fuss. I've had weird chest pains in the past, but this was different. Along with a pressure in my chest, I had pain in my jaw and I broke into a sweat. Not good.

So, since I was already driving on the freeway (!), I just passed my office exit and drove to the ER. There was a lot of fuss, questions, monitors, etc. as the pain just faded away. I felt fine once more, but they insisted I stay overnight for observation, and undergo some more tests in the morning. It was then that I thought I should have gone to work and forgot about it. But--everyone I spoke to insisted that I did the right thing.

Anyway, all the tests came out fine, and I found out I was in better shape than I thought! So, my heart is fine and I learned you can really never fool around when you have chest pains!

For more info on heart disease in women: http://www.goredforwomen.org/

I think I'll get myself a red dress and send some cash to the AMA!

P.S. I had my husband take a picture of the curtain that was hanging in the ICU room when I was waiting to go up to the cardiac floor. It was two shades of spring green with really cool grey flowers on it. I'll post it when he emails it to me. It was a great color scheme for a quilt!

Hmmmmm...

I looked at my blocks again, and I don't like the big one. I love the little pinwheel, but the big one is not pleasing to the eye. I need to make another 14 inch block. Maybe this weekend.
I'll also begin on my sunrise quilt. I picked the fabrics for it, and I'll start putting everything together. Right now, though, household and family obligations call me. *sigh*

Oh--I took a pic of a teeny moth on my window this morning. Just for fun.

No more rain! No more rain!

Remember those words from Woodstock? (oop I really dated myself right there...) We have had rain 5 out of the last seven days; a lot of it!! It's getting old. The backyard is a lake, and the dogs haven't been out for any length of time for days and days. But--I did get to the workroom for a while today.

I worked on the sunrise quilt for a short time, but I really felt the need for some good old fashioned piecing. I just wanted to get re-acquainted with my sewing machine.

So I worked on an old UFO--the Flower BOM from the Quilts Your Way Forum. www.quiltsyourway.com/forums

It was started in 2007 and was conceived by one of the members there, Lisa from Texas. She did a great job of finding blocks for us to make--all of them flower-themed. All my blocks were done, but I decided to do a different setting from the one she suggested. I found a nice sampler quilt setting in an old magazine, and worked out a similar one the blocks I had made. But, I needed more of them, so today I made two more, and started another one. That one is paper pieced, and I couldn't finish before it was time for The Amazing Race. I know, lame. But true.

So here they are. They look to be the same size, but the pinwheel is 6", and the other one is 14"!

I also took a pic of this interesting little pile of schnibbles left over from trimming units for another quilt I made last winter. I love the colors. I'm not sure what I will do with them, but I don't want to pitch them just yet.

Maybe I can make even more schnibbles and do an impressionistic quilt a la Noriko Endo.

Rainy Saturday

Perfect for working on a project without feeling guilty about not being in the garden.

This is a picture of a February sunrise in our backyard.

I decided to manipulate it a little with my trial version of Photoshop. Before this, I was a Photoshop virgin, but I must say I'm hooked. I've been trying all sorts of stuff with it. I thought about simplifying it a bit by taking out some of the trees, but I kinda like the chaos of them.

So here's the pic after I played with it and got to where I really liked it. I really just saturated the colors a bit; warmed up the sky and cooled down the snow. Then I printed it on a piece of fabric.

Now comes the really fun part where I get to expand on it. I'll add more fabric, paint some stuff and maybe add some beading or other embellishment to emphasize the contrast between the hot and the cold.