Sunday, November 29, 2009

Christmas Gift... already given


I've been hiding in Michigan for three days now. No, I won't tell you where; you cannot find me :) and I am thoroughly enjoying the peace and quiet here. The weather, unfortunately, is very similar to Seattle and currently it is rainy and dreary outside, though colder than it would be if I were home.


This place, with it's red walls and furry creatures, caries a soft serenity with it, enveloping me and coaxing a smile to my face, a happy curving line. I have finished my first Christmas gift and given it to a good friend of mine. As promised, I've included photos. The gift is a sketch book for an artist with a quilted cover and the first few pages completed for her. The lines of perspective were a real bear and as you can tell, I didn't quite get them right (they are bowing a bit) but this was my third try on getting them as accurate as possible. There are green buttons on the plant. And of course, featured in the center of our piece for today are the great, snow covered, curves of The Mountain (Seattlites are well aware of which mountain that would be). The dress is embelmatic of my friend and of course the hats are kinda me... I love hats. I used to wear one every single day. :). I'll post a few detailed pictures of this later.
Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving.....

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Nov. 25, 2009

Thanksgiving is almost here and the rest of the holidays are impending. So little time to finish my projects. I've started various new projects; the most recent is a potholder. I've never actually tried to make a simple potholder. When I first stared quilting, I made a small quilt first and then a twin sized bed quilt, no dawdling with small creations; doing potholders now seems a little backwards. I'll post photos once I've finished a few of them. Two of them are already slated for Christmas gifts. Hopefully I'll get those finished this weekend and then make a couple more for certain friends.
I'm still stuck in the phase of hand stitching all of my applique. I have yet to attempt to machine applique anything. I am hoping to work on this soon, perhaps with my next quilt project (which has to be finished in... January? I might be able to postpone it until March). I probably should get started on that one soon. This will require a trip to a quilt store. A real one. Not a mere fabric and crafts store like I normally frequent for such wonderful items as $1 sales on fat quarters. Maybe next weekend I can swing by Quiltworks Northwest and find some beautiful moda fabrics or Amy Butler. Still trying to decide wether to purchase the pattern online or wing it. I've never really been one for following patterns....

Anyhow, hope to post some pictures of completed work soon.