Fingerless Glove Winner!

Thank you to all the readers who entered my 

Two Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway!

I put your names on little sticky notes- 

folded them shut and put them in this container 

with the cover on, 

shook them up and 

had my husband do the honors.

The backgrounds in these two pictures are some of the new tiles he brought home for me to photograph on.  Don't you just love the river rock.  I am so inspired by that I am planning a mixed media mosaic project to use them in.  

He chose a little orange sticky with Cyndi L's name on it!!  

Congratulations Cyndi!! 

Cyndi L is the creator of SEVEN BLOGS, 

• Mixed Media Artist
• Beading Arts
• 2012 Bead Journal Project
• 08BJP
• Real Food Fast!
• BLOG # 1 Bead Journal Project 2011
• Bead Journal Project 3

wow,

 I have no idea how she can keep up with all that. 

My favorites are 

the Mixed Media Artist and Beading Arts. 

Be sure to check them out. 

She has lots of interviews, technique tutotials, great inspirational material, 

contests, giveaways, reviews ... in her blogs. 

Cyndi will now have the warmest hands while she taps her keyboard 

madly creating these wonderful sites wearing my luxurious wine red fingerless gloves. 

This week I put my foot down and chose not to participate in the 5th Bead Soup Blog Hop because my local quilt guild- Desert Quilters of Nevada 

(we have a new website!!)

is having their annual show in March and 

the entry deadline is January 27th. 

I am determined to finish a UFO from 2007. 

(I didn't get to photograph the pieces in time, dead battery, 

so I will put up pictures of this work in progress next week)

This is a pieced vest I started in a class with Rachel Clarke that year.  

It was a wonderful class where we not only learned lots of piecing techniques 

like the curved flying geese 

but also how to custom fit and alter our pattern. 

 I am not sure this vest will still fit me 

but my goal is to finish it and lose the extra pounds that don't fit in it by March 

so I can model it in the Quilt Show Fashion Show.  

 I have 8 weeks- Yikes!! 

I also need to finish up several art quilts I will enter.  

This is my most recent piece, yet to have a name.

 

My Art Quilts ect Circle has a monthly challenge.  January was "Feathers".

My mind became obsessed with wings and so an angel was born, 

hovering over a lake with her tears (swarovsky crystals) causing ripples.

I free motion stitched the angel then thread painted on her hair and wings

before I added the background pieces.

 I have found that doing so with stabilizer and no backing fabric works best on my machine.

So the back of the quilt does not show the mess that the thread painting makes 

and the quilt top doesn't shrink and pucker either. 

The base fabrics for the angel were two shades of monochromatic marbled fabrics.

I added paint to make the left wing come forward- pearl white and silver 

and mixed pearl white and black to get several shades of grey 

and black sharpie to make the right wing receed. 

The trees were a very happy mistake- 

they puffed a lot as I was quilting over them so I purposefully stopped.

That puffiness and the different shades of green in the batik fabric 

are what makes them look so three dimensional. 

It is amazing what a little paint on multicolored batiks can do 

to create depth and the shimmer that water has. 

It is amazing what a little paint on multicolored batiks can do 

to create depth and the shimmer that water has. 

 Next time I will take before and after (the painting) pictures so you can see what a difference

purposefully applied paint and marker can make in a landscape. 

I had to change the sky so that the brightest part was around my focal point. 

The fabric I used for the sunset sky was wonderful but had random bright spots 

that pulled a little too strongly away from the focal point. 

 Next time I will take before and after (the painting) pictures so you can see what a difference

purposefully applied paint and marker can make in a landscape. 

I had to change the sky so that the brightest part was around my focal point. 

Here is a shot of the back where the water is, allowing you to see the free motion stitches.

I want this art quilt to induce a calming effect on the viewer so I think I am finished.

No more embellishing pizazz or glitz on this one. 

Hope you all have an artfully productive week too, that is my plan. 

Heather