Pat Winter's Giveaway...I Covet Much

There is a very special blog that I have been reading for quite awhile now called Pat Winter Gatherings. She does exquisite crazy quilting...lives it really. Pat has been published in many of my favorite magazines. If you click on the here you will see a little treasure she is giving away. I must say I covet that precious nest! There is something about the bird/nest/wing thing that really appeals to me. If I am not the lucky winner I will figure out how to make one! So go take a look....make sure to look through past posts as each one has something to offer. You will certainly be inspired!

HOT & HUMID again today so you know not much in the way of choring today!I

I decided to begin the "Box" project for Colleen. Right after meeting her at the HGTV quilt retreat we began emailing and having recognized a similar aesthetic artistically so we embarked on a journey! We sent each other things, in a BOX! that reflected us, what inspires us or what speaks to us. I LOVE old, rusty, worn. weathered, solid bits so I included all that plus some wool, linen and old lace in my box for her to create something with. When I opened the box from Colleen it was like I was looking at all things similar to my things! I knew it! We have no timeline and no limitations. I have wanted to do a mixed media dimensional piece for a long time but I always need a reason or deadline or an expectation to be the catalyst to produce.

I can't really show you what I am doing now though as it is supposed to be a surprise and I want to keep it a surprise because I really think it will be a surprise!

I will, however, take pictures along the creative journey and post them all when she has received it. I am very very excited about this and feel like I am doing something that says ME as well as says Colleen.

Melissa & I both broke out the air dry clay today and made various "beads". She made a bunch using stamps....sun, moon, flowers, alphabets. They are really cute. I made some more little bird beads, fish, mended hearts, and stamped bird images. I love them all but I particularly like the mended hearts. I am going to paint them a deep red and antique it with black and try to "sew" it together with thin wire.

I love days like today. It felt like a Sunday should feel...slower, calmer than all the other days. When I was little every Sunday was like that since NO stores were open on Sunday. Hard to believe now. It is a great way to rejuvenate for 7AM Monday mornings.

These 3 works of art were made by Caren Betlinski, a retired teacher and a very talented woman. She did a trunk show for us last year and we arranged to have her do an all day workshop for us this Saturday. These are truly sensational. These are all done using thread painting. All that color gradation.....many shades of thread. Gorgeous.

I think we will be "painting" lazy susan's. I had most of the threads in my stash but since yellow has never been a favored color I had to run to local Joanne's to buy the shades required. We will surely learn many helpful things in her class and I know everyone is very excited about it.

I learned today:

1. That one should always look in the mirror before answering a knock (I don't have a doorbell...don't need one apparently!) at the door. It was only 6:00ish but I had already showered the sweaty day off and had addressed some adult blemishes (man, I never outgrew this) by attacking them with some 10% zit zapper stuff which is a (transparent) white. I thought of this about 15 minutes later! He wears glasses and can't see well out of one eye so maybe he didn't even notice the pearly dots adorning my face!
2. Humphrey Bogart~no. Cary Grant~yes
3. I bought Mixed Media Self Portraits by Cate (love C..ate instead of K...ate) Coulacos Prato today with my 40% off coupon of course. Elaine had this at our art quilt meeting and since we are going to be concentrating on self portraits I wanted to have some idea's to work with. Sharon came up with the idea of a series of 5...from childhood to adolescence to other times in our lives. 8.5" x 11" is a doable, not daunting, size so this will be interesting and fun.