Fiber "Arts"

Today DD-i-L and I took a class in fabric postcards and ATCs. This class was her birthday present last month, so she had to wait a bit to actually get it. It was very selfish on my part -- I haven't had a chance to get away and sew with her since last Thanksgiving weekend.

It was fun, like going to kindergarten and getting gold stars no matter what we did. I made this postcard using for background some trimmings from a quilt made years ago.

This ATC has a little pocket at the bottom -- the flowers were cut from a greeting card. I tried the hot-fix crystals on it, and liked the result, but somewhere between there and home one of the crystals fell off. So do I shell out about $40 for the heating tool and a tiny bag of crystals to replace the missing one? I think not . . . I'll take off the other two and sew beads in their place.
The idea is that these little projects don't take much time, unlike a big quilt. However I can see that the amount of "stuff" one can recycle into these projects would take over all the just-reclaimed closet space in my sewing room!

Gratitudes:

DGD played her trio beautifully

a perfect summer day

Bad couple of weeks

I have had a nasty virus and a houseguest; poor pet -- it has to have been a bummer visit for her. Very little accomplished, just a lot of coughing and blowing. One day we did make fiber postcards; here's mine:

Coplan's and Bodie's quilts are finished, but I haven't had a chance to take photos of them yet. I still have to get the final border on the Four-Patch Posies quilt. But I will be out of town through Sunday, at the annual retreat of my religious order. If I can go, that is. I doubt I'm still contagious, but I can't cough all through the silent retreat, that would be most unkind! I do hope I can attend; this year promises to be very special, and every year is important.

The day after I get home, I will have surgery on my shoulder, for several problems, including a torn rotator cuff. I'm looking forward to getting that over with.

So my knitting and sewing, and perhaps typing, will be on vacation for a bit while I mend. I'm enjoying a couple of new books by Mark Schweitzer of St. James Music Press. They are laugh-out-loud funny, about a chief of police who is also organist and choirmaster of an Episcopal Church in Appalachia, and also aspires to write hard-boiled detective novels, which are truly awful. Good reading for when my mind is mush.

Gratitudes:

cool summer so far

a pileated woodpecker near the house

a red-headed woodpecker for the first time in years

Ant Latte?

This morning, when I dumped the coffee dregs from the pot into the sink, seven drowned ants fell out. It's March 5, for heaven's sake! How have they survived this cold winter? (Not to mention those blasted Asian beetles which never go away.) In some cultures, ants are considered an acceptable protein-based comestible, but I'd at least like to have washed them first. How would one go about washing an ant?

Yesterday I thought my cold couldn't get worse, but sure enough, it did. I didn't get much done yesterday, but today I will take a stab at finishing this postcard:

Although the leaf is a subdued batik, both it and the black background are more vivid than they appear in this anemic photo. I have some beads and a tiny acorn charm to sew on, then we'll see how it looks.

I had hoped to get the top of Coplan's quilt put together yesterday, but didn't. And my head is too clogged up today to be leaning over picking up and putting down blocks. Here it is to date:

Gratitudes:

hot tea

hot showers

no cold lasts forever

Another Postcard

Less successful than the first. I wanted this to be simple and classic looking, for the birthday of Myra, who does amazing nature-themed quilts for the Audubon Society in Milwaukee. I had a beautiful bluejay feather, and now I've learned when using real feathers, sew them on after all pressing is finished!

I didn't finish Coplan's quilt today, my cold is even worse, and I'm even grumpier.

Gratitudes:
good husband fixed dinner
didn't have to accomplish anything today
found a place to service my sewing machines (now that all the Madison dealers have gone out of business)

Zebra Postcard

Oops, first one didn't take.

Gratitudes:

a good night's sleep

fresh snow

Fabric Postcard

My first fabric postcard (well, second, actually, but the first didn't count):

The background is a couple of cut-off triangles from some strip piecing sewn together.  The background of the fussy cut zebra is a piece of corrugated cardboard that some leaf buttons from South Africa came on.  The buttons I've had for a while, and the variegated thread was a prize last week at the EAA retreat.  

Gratitudes:

another day to sew

time with granddaughter Olivia

the privilege of voting