That means she's been doing more sewing and painting these days. I've been making lots of pincushions and finishing quilts I started years ago. The painting, well, not so much, but I have been finishing lots of things.
Here's a few of the pincushions I've finished lately. The first is one from a pincushion of the month kit I purchased from Quilt Fabric Delights in Australia. Their PC kit of the month program is done now, but they had the greatest kits. They still have the patterns. This pattern also had a wrist pincushion and needlekeep, which I also made. I especially liked the fabric which was in the kit.
I played around with some crazy quilting for pincushions and got a little carried away. T
he first one was designed with a baby theme with a picture of a baby being carried by a stork as the center block. I did the crazy quilt embroidery by hand on that one. It took a few evenings of sitting in front of the TV to complete, but it looked pretty nice, I thought.
The next ones I crazy quilted were designed around a Victorian Lady center block. The crazy quilt embroidery was done by machine on the majority of the block and some hand embroidery was added to complete them. I learned a little more each time I made another one. I have several more printed designs I want to work up into blocks, but I have so many more ideas for pincushions I don't want to get stuck on doing just one type of pincushion.
I also have been working with friends on a handpainted quilt for a raffle for my Painting Group, Heart of Michigan Decorative Artists, HOMDA. Members of the group painted a square of fabric with a flower of their choice and several of us got together and put sashing around the blocks, along with the borders, which are all batiks. My friend, who has a longarm quilting machine, and I then spent about 20 plus hours quilting the designs on each block, based on how each block "spoke" to us. This was quite an experience for me. Then another member put the binding on this gorgeous quilt. It it very impressive now that it is complete! We are selling tickets for this quilt, 6 for $5.00 or $1.00 each. The quilt will be raffled off June 2010. Take a look at it here:
If anyone out there is interested in purchasing tickets, please drop me a comment and I will get back with you about how to purchase.
Last but not least, I've written directions for a flower pincushion that is sooo simple to make. I have to figure out how to add a pdf file to my blog and as soon as I do that I'll share the pictures and pattern for everyone.
I won't wait 6 months to write again either!
