Gift

Look at what a friend gave me. I've never seen a sewing basket like this one. She thinks her mother did the painting on it. I put my Kaleidoscopes in it. They are all children's ones and great fun to play with. I collect the old round, unlined wicker ones, but this one is so special and will remind me of her. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a blog.

Quilt

This is the first piece I've finished since the surgery. I'd pieced it before, so I would have some hand sewing to do while I sat around-not an easy thing for me to do. I was going to call it Recovery, but my friend has Recovery 1 and 2 from after her back surgery. Given the technique used, I think it will become Scratching the Surface. Any ideas friends?

The main part is a monoprint that I did on a glass plate by scratching into the paint with one of those grooved tools from the hardware store. I cut it into 3 pieces and used a hand dyed fat quarter than I bought somewhere. It seemed to need beads-doesn't everything? Then I couched metallic threads down and finally machine quilted it.

Purse

Here is the purse I made from the felted panel. It is a McGhee pattern and still needs a handle. I like her patterns-easy to follow and the product looks good.

Samplers

Here is a Herringbone sampler-one of my favorite stitches. It moves along quickly and bends or fills a shape easily. And the fly stitch. It is good for filling in places.

I need to get to work. I'm running out of new things to show.

Postcards

Isn't this wonderful? It came from Marie http://zquilts.blogspot.com . I love her artwork, and now I have a postcard with this fanciful cat. It was such a pleasure to get the mail. Another totally perfect postcard that came in the mail is this one from Pippa http://hippopip.blogspot.com as part of the exchange for http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com It's all about having to kiss many frogs before we found our prince. Mine has taken care of me very well lately, so I think I'll keep him. It's over 44 years now-how did that happen? I'm not old enough.

Pippa also made the fun envelope to put it in and the buttons. They are very lightweight and will be great to us.

It's so nice to have such friends.

Bead Journal Project

Here is May's Journal quilt for http://andmorebjp08.blogspot.com I tried to bead the faint area on the left, but it spit the beads out, so I decided to keep it simple. It goes along with all the medical stuff and surgery to keep the rest of my life basic. I'm on the mend enough to want to spend at least part of today in my studio.

Postcards

Here is my April postcard from Sharon from http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com Isn't it fun and just the lift I needed this month.

May is a calendar inspiration of Monet's waterlilies. I did it on the embellisher.

Quiltie

Thank you for all the comments and support. It was a very scary time, and it is great to know I have friends out there. My life has certainly been enriched by knowing all of you. Here is my companion who won't leave my side for very long. He's my 100 lb. nurse-just a little boy. He'll be 10 in August but still thinks he's a puppy.

This quiltie from Liz arrived while I was in the hospital. It is the exchange for Unlimited Textiles for the Kandinsky theme. Isn't it wonderful? I really enjoy getting the quilties.

Message, gifts

I usually don't put much personal stuff on my blog but decided that the message was too important to hide behind privacy. People know your own bodies, and if something is not right, go find out about it. I've just had surgery for an ovarian tumor that was just starting to change but not yet cancer, so the surgery took care of it. Now there is a blood test ca-125 that is a cancer marker like the PSA is in men, so it is much more detectable before it's too late. I'm fine and recovering very quickly thanks to being fit to begin with. It's just slow and driving me nuts not to be able to do much. However, it's nice for DH to wait on me. Dale of www.thethreadstudio.com had a giveaway on her blog of 60 things for her birthday. It was just after I learned of my problem but before I knew what was going on, so it was an incredible lift to win it and the above quiltie to cheer me on. I sat in the hospital bed and kept going through everything planning on what to do with it. Thank you for being there Dale, and giving me something to look forward to.

This is just some of what came.

Here's some more, but there is twice as much as I've shown-perfect!