MQAI Progress

Before I show my progress on my 'birds' for the MQAI exhibit, here's my latest peyote needle case I finished. The pattern is from Beth at Until We Bead Again. I ordered some more cases from Beth as she now has me hooked on making these! Can't wait to start on another one! I used different colored beads than Beth's pattern called for, only because I didn't have all the colors and was too cheap to buy more! I'm keeping this one because I used #15 Delica's for the 'white' on the pattern and I only had crystal in a 'white and only #15's'. All the other beads were Delica's #11's which the pattern calls for. There is a slight distortion using the smaller size Delica's but it was also a good practice and learning experience for me.

This is the other side, again, my horse is a different color! But I really like my needle case.

Now on to my MQAI progress...I mentioned the Latin - Mexican Folk Art web site where I obtained permission to use one of their photos for my latest art quilt. I forgot to post a picture of the original art work. This is a photo of Tomas Rameriz's painting. I love his birds and if you go to his web site he has this similar pattern in so many different colors. They have lots of different Mexican and Latin American art work for sale. Check it out!

Yesterday, early, I got the first shades of blue painted on. Did I mention I had to redraw my pattern? The Tyvek material I'm using is basically like a 'fabric' and has a right and wrong side. The wrong side is quite 'slippery' and the right side appears to have a weave to it. I blame my 'Alice' moment on the stress of Mandy as I did the tracing on and off during her 1st week of recovery.
So who is 'Alice' you ask? Still Alice is a really good book written by Lisa Genova about a woman in her 50's diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. My friend, Mary, recommended this book to me only because she and I have to use stickie notes to remember to even call each other! It is a good read - actually a good book to listen to on tape/CD. Anyway, we call ourselves Alice quite often!

OK, so back to art work...

Yesterday afternoon I finished the rest of the dark blue. What a fun piece to paint! Very relaxing to say the least.

I'll rough cut out the design this afternoon or tomorrow and then start to audition on background fabric. I'm thinking of maybe even using a bright background vs the 'bark' type background..depends on whether I retain the original 'bark painting' theme or do my own interpretation of updating this old technique to a modern art technique.

I'm off to pick up the house; pick up myself and head out to get the car wash, pet store (Sybil needs some more food!!) and grocery shop. My friend, Mary, watches her great grand daughter so I may stop at Panera's and pick up lunch for us. I'm always motivated by food! That will get me through the grocery shopping part of my day!