Assorted

Two of us went to the Portland Art Museum last week, and I found these cool coins in the store. We saw the Madame Pompadour exhibit and one on prints and paper casting. Next was a good lunch and a visit to Powell's books. A nice relaxing day.

These are the napkins I received from Ann in British Columbia. My favorite is the one with the forest type things.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Bead Journal Project piece. It's always fun to get comments.

Bead Journal Project

Continuing to use commercial batiks and marbled fabrics has provided a number of challenges. This is the latest one. It demanded that I just do an allover beaded piece following the colors of the print. It is for the http://andmorebjp08.blogspot.com started by Robin Atkins http://beadlust.blogspot.com

This month's theme for Unlimited Textiles is Abstract. I was laying on the studio floor petting the dog, looked up, and saw this fabric that I had painted and rubber stamped-perfect. I quilted it in rust metallic.

Here is one of the exercises for the color class. I do like intense colors so did the split complementary that way. The teacher says it's correct, but the intense colors bother her.

Calendar Girls

This was my month to pick the Calendar Photo to inspire us. I had saved this calendar from 1982 because of the wonderful Unicorn photos. This photo is called Last Days by Vaclav Vaca. When I saw it, of course, I saw beads.

The background is corduroy with chain stitched lines and beaded motifs.

Class, Gifts

Embellisher Club was yesterday and was great fun. We made buttons-here are mine. Now I need to make more and use braids and beads on them. They are quick and a good way to try color combinations. Now I need to make something to use them on.

Isn't this roving luscious? My friend Catherine gave it to me. It will be a purse which is the next Club project. Now I need to find trims to go with it. I'm sure there are plenty in my stash as these colors are ones I love.

My friend Lois gave me these napkins to use in the Ratty Tatty Papers class from www.thethreadstudio.com I'm getting a nice stash.This cottage scene begs to be turned into a piece, and the rooster is great-a reminder of the one we lost to the hawk several weeks ago.I am so lucky to have such good friends.

Quilts

Before Christmas I took a class from http://www.joggles.com/ on using Tyvek and did the above pieces. I didn't realize that I'd scanned the small quilt before I sewed the binding.I've been experimenting some more.

This time I tried flowers but feel that leaves seem more natural for the destructured look. Here is a detail.

Then I printed a photo of a flower in our garden on Tyvek and machined it to felt. I barely hit the iron to it(with parchment paper over it to protect the iron), and this is what happened. I am pleased with this one and have another flower photo ready to stitch.

Gifts, Swaps

Isn't this lovely? It is even richer in person. It's this month's exchange for Calendar Girls and is from Carolt http://postcards-and-stuff.blogspot.com/

I'm taking Ratty Tatty Papers from Dale at The Thread Studion, and two of us in Washington exchanged napkins to expand our stash. These are from Patty. The fish are my favorites, but then maybe the oriental one, or the grapes. What fun.