More Dragonfly Fun :)

This is the newest piece that I have started. I am switching off between this one and the swap piece from the post below. Classes have started as of yesterday so I may have to put this one on hold untill I get the swap piece finished. This one is going to take awhile as i want to add some stumpwork flowers and bugs to it. I haven't decided if it will get a border yet, I have a few more sketches to make but I need to decide before it gets much more progressed.

The bead trail on this has been a blast to make :) I had a container of leftovers and they have found the perfect home here. All of the fabric's and fibers are reclycled materials. Going green with this one :) The wings on this dragonfly are very intense, the stitching is done with 1 strand of DMC, the body of the dragonfly will also have quite a bit of stitching on it .

Art Quilt

Well this is the start of my little art quilt for the swap over on the Surface Designs Yahoo Group. I am loving how it is turning out though I think I'm going in a totaly diffrent direction than everyone else. I think they are all doing something a bit more mixed media and mine is not so much . I'm kinda worried that they won't like it .

But anyways let me tell ya'll a little about it. The base fabric is a piece of scrap muslin that I used to soak up some left over dyes, the dragonfly was made frome some bits of fancy fabrics that had fusible attached to them. They were fixing to go into the trash when i recued them with this project in mind. The threads are leftovers from cross stitch kits and the blade of grass that the dragonfly is sitting on is a scrap of hand dyed fabric that a friend of mine was about to throw away.

I got the insperation for this piece from the dragonfly's that have invaded my yard this year. I love watching them flying around catching bugs. A couple of weeks ago I saw the prettiest gold dragonfly sitting on a blade of grass in my front yard. It seemed like it sat there forever , maybe it was sleeping ? Anyways it looked so peaceful with the Bahaia grass waving in the background that I just knew I had to recreate it in fabric.

The camera just can't pick up the details very well, the wings are so transparent and shimmery looking with little bits of colour and they are outlines with a pale purple stem stitch in 1 stand of floss. The eye's are almost mettalic looking in person , very neat, And the body of this little bugger just shines :) I love it so much and I hope that my partner will also. I still have alot left to do on it though, there is a bunch more grass that needs to be put in and I am wanting to see if I can add a few more bugs to this. I'm thinking a ladybug, bee's, maybe some more dragonfly's in the distance. I really need to get stitching faster though as the deadline is less than a month away and I'll need at least a week to quilt and bind it.

1860's Antique CQ

I missed out on this interestin CQ a few months ago on Ebay. The bid went way above what I could afford at the time. I thought I would post photo's of it , I find the center bit so neat. Maybe it will inspire someone out there in bloglang :)

A New Challenge

Long time no post, I've kinda been in a funk. I've manage to do a bit of work on my art quilt and I'm loving how it's turning out. I may have to another one :) I can't show any pic's yet as I want it to be a surprise for my partner.

Over on Deb's blog Creatively Amused ( see my side bar ) there is a super neat new challenge. It's called the Renaissance Girl Challenge. I have a idea in my sketch book of a project that I've been wanting to do for quite awhile and I think that it will fit nicely in with this challenge. Follow the link to read Deb's post on this challenge :

http://creativelyamused.blogspot.com/2008/06/renaissance-girl-challenge.html

I Want To Go Home !!

**Warning - this is a very whiny, feeling sorry for myself post **

I want to go home so bad, when I say home I mean back to Maine ! I have had this overwhelming urge for the last year or so and the past few weeks it's really driving me nuts. And when I say nuts I really mean it, I can do nothing but obsess over this to the point where it is interfering with everyday normal life. I am finding it hard to go to sleep at night or to concentrate on anything other than how I can get us all back to Maine and I know it's not even a little bit possible at the moment. I want out of Louisiana and that's just so weird as I used to love it here ! I keep telling myself soon we will go but it's not helping :( For some reason I almost get the feeling that I *need* to be there ASPA, like something is fixing to happen. I know it makes no sense but that's just how it is. Am I going nuts ? It sure feels like it :(

Super busy now ;)

Well I have almost got the little mini from last post all quilted up, it's comming out so nice. I am using mettalic gold for the quilting, just a bit more of the boder left to go. I will post a pic as soon as I get it all done. Isis's little doll quilt is all finished and as soon as she will let me pry it from her I'll post a pic of that too :) I have been thinking alot about the 200th post that is near and I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing a mini quilt give away. I have a few idea's bouncing around in my head for it !

Also I have signed up for a mini quilt swap, I am very excited. Partners will be being assigned in a few days and I just can't wait !! And I have also signed up for another mini quilt swap on one of the Yahoo groups that I belong to. In this swap you need to make a art quilt wallhanging using only recycled materials. This one will be very challenging for me but I think it will be in a good way. I have so many rescued items ( mostly from Goodwill ) sitting in the craft closet that this will be a wonderful way to use up some of them. I have an idea for this one that involves a dragonfly, flowers, lots of beads that I've taken off of old clothes and a ton of hand embroidery. I really need to get busy on it as it has a due date of September. I hope to have time tommorow to do an outline for it to see if what I want to do will work. I have several gallon sized baggies of silk that I would like to put a dent in.

In only an Hour

Look at what you can do in only an hours time :) Please go check out Oh Sew Hitty if your wanting to make one - I think I may make a couple more , I really want to try it in Civil War Fabrics and in Batik/black. It measures in at 12 1/2 long by 11 wide. All of these fabrics have come from my stash, even if I only used up a bit of my stash it's nice to see a finished top :)

Here is the December block, very cute !! I'll be back with the April block soon :)

Busy as a Bee :) Love those mini's

Wow it's been a few days since I posted. I've been finishing off Isis's little doll quilt and I've got another Redwork block done. On the Redwork I've got 4 finished & 8 more to go.Today when I logged in I noticed that I am getting really close to the 200th post mark and I think that I need to celebrate it in some way.
School starts again soon for me - matter of fact in 24 days. I hope that this semester will be easier than the others as it looks like I will be hand raising Angel's litter. For some reason she has lost her milk, it has me totaly confused :( I will be back with pictures at some point today , I need to find the cord to the camera :( I lose that thing all the time , I think I just need to leave it attached to the computer.
Now for some mini quilt love :) Go check out Oh Sew Hitty in my side bar for tutorials on making a mini log cabin and a mini disapearing 9 patch. Both of these are on my to do list.