Finally, back to art work!

So before I start posting about what I finally got to work on yesterday...check out what I rec'd in the mail today! These are tatting shuttles that our most 'majestic' Queen of Purple sent me! The 'Queen' is from the Florida Warped Weavers group I belong to. Jan (aka Queen of Purple) happened to mention that she had a few of these 'hanging' around and of course I could see possibilities in my head as she was speaking! Well, she was kind enough to send them to me!! How cool are these! I see fish, I see stamping/rubbings, I see...I see...I see!! Can't wait to play with them!! THANKS, so much your Majesty!! I will forever be your humble servant!

Boy did it feel good yesterday to finally play in my sewing room! I don't know how some folks can exist with having some type of art or hobby or something to distract them from the normal, daily routine(s)! I've been feeling so disjointed not doing some type of art work!

My Friend, Lois Ann, who now resides in Italy, has been stranded here in the U.S. due to the volcano. Her plane was suppose to leave yesterday! LA was able to meet us at dinner and attend our fiber group meeting last Thursday and presented me with some wine from Italy. I love the wine but check out the box!!! These drawings are on the outside of the box. Way too cool to throw away so the box now resides in my sewing room!

And I couldn't just let the box sit there so I took some pictures of the individual drawings. As I was looking at them I thought they'd make a great fiber post card! So....

This is the picture that I printed out on to some fabric that I had already applied a coat of Digital ground medium (matt) from Golden. I did add some writing in photoshop at the bottom (don't have that picture yet) and printed the drawing on a 5" x 7" piece of fabric. I have it sandwiched with batting and I'll do some stitching around the eyes, etc. and mail as a fiber postcard. Actually, I ended up printing out two of them. I need one for a BD card and another one for a friend.

Since I was in the printing mood I thought I better get working on my May BJP which is 'May Flowers'..go figure...I know. I found this print of a 17th century-embroidered motif on the 'Textile Blog' and thought it would be perfect for my BJP. It appears to have some 'zentangle' or doodling in the flowers and leaves and seems to be perfect for beading!

Just a quick note on The Textile Blog..this is a great resource for a "daily insight into all aspects of printed, woven and knitted textiles, as well as carpet, rug, tapestry, quilting, embroidery, lace and basketry design". I took this direct from the profile on John Hopper who writes this blog. I love this site and have seen and learned so much by the daily posts. Check it out sometime you won't be disappointed and just might learn something new about something old!

I was afraid the motif might not be large enough with the quilting and beading so I took some purple fabric I had painted with Setacolor in Florida and cut not so straight pieces for a border. I didn't want the orange background to be square so you'll have to wait until the piece is finished to get a better picture of the picture in my mind! Now to start quilting it and then I can start beading!

I also did some more hand work on my KISS challenge while watching out Tigers baseball team on TV..ok, so I listened more than I watched but I did get lots of hand stitching done. The KISS challenge is by Dijanne Cevall and is due April 30th! Her requirements were you could only use one or two base colors in your fabric so I choose this purple then you could use any color thread either with machine or hand stitching but only using straight stitches.

I did all the straight lines with my machine and now I'm filling in circles with hand stab stitches..whew! Sure takes a lot of time and strength for the old hands..which are having some disagreements with me at night saying they want a break! UGH...but I do love hand work so we'll just keep plugging along!

Here's another closeup of some of the stitching. It will finish at 20" x 20" (another requirement) and I should have the stitching done by Friday! When I finish this post I'm going in to watch the news and stitch some more!

Another beautiful day today! Bob and I went car shopping as my lease is up next week. We have Bob's brother looking for our car (he's in the car business) and we're hoping he finds the one we want. We're looking at the Buick Enclave in Silver right now but we'll go with whatever he finds us. I just LOVE my Saturn Outlook and hate to give it up but we drove the Enclave and it rides even better. They are both really nice cars and GM did a good job on them both..just too bad the Saturn nameplate is gone!