Two of the Three Lapidary Show Pieces

"Quietude"
1 of 3 pieces I made for the Rochester Society Lapidary show this coming weekend. The idea for having fiber artists display work at the gem, bead, fossil and stone show, where most people are thinking of making jewelry....this will make patrons at the show think of other applications for the goods being sold. Clever idea for sure.
Diane procured various cut stones for us to choose from. I wish I knew what each of these are called. Maybe I will learn it and add in later!
For Quietude I used silk fabric, hand stitching and strands of the gorgeous silk fabric.
I used a technique I found on Lyric Kinard's blog that shows how to fuse the piece to canvas, both top and sides. Worked like a charm!

 Close up of the cut and contoured rock, nesting in the silky bits.

"Ridgeline"
Using repurposed fabrics (woman's scarf and vintage coat fabric), I needle felted the scarf's sheer dotty material to a felt background, inserting a piece of handyed fabric in between. Hand stitching, naturally, was added to anchor the mountain.

I mounted each of these onto 8"x 8" x2" canvas.
There is 1 more.....I am still finishing that one up!

Today, at guild, we welcomed Wendy Butler Berns for a lecture on quilt inspirations. Very concise and informative. I was able to take off yesterday to participate in her "Out on a Limb" class. We all made a small quilt in the class and learned a few techniques that will serve a purpose in other works brewing in our heads.

I am the one in the prison stripes~! My piece took on an unexpected Halloween flair. One of the things Wendy included in our pattern/supply kit was Texture Magic. We used it on our trees. It is very cool stuff, shrinking up after much stitching, using a steam iron. Wendy had a quilt top with her and one of the blocks was of a fish that she had used the Texture Magic on, sewn to a background fabric. I also liked the technique she had us use to build the background using freezer paper pattern and permanent glue stick. I will be using that again!

After all day class, ran to a union meeting, then met up with Melissa and Mela for a short visit. She had on her faux Ugg boots I got her at Target. Too cute. Really. Too, too cute she is.

So I started making some 1/4" hexi's. Yes. I. Did.
They are harder to get hold of in the hand to make all the tacking stitches. I have a big idea for my guild challenge quilt! I would need many, mucho, tons of these bits. The challenge this year is "That was then...." We are to use the year of our birth to make up to 2 entries. This can include ANYTHING from, for me, 1961. I googled movies, books, songs and news from that time frame. How cool is that!? This will be fun.

Tomorrow I will finish up my last lapidary show piece, get the binding on Mela's hexi quilt, spray baste Sophia's strip quilt up and list some more items on my vintage Etsy site. And relax. I hope to not have to get dressed and stay holed up here. That is the plan. I love that plan.

I have learned:

1. Would like to see "Gravity". Heard it's really good. 
2. Netflix on my TV is not working...on laptop, yes. I guess I need to work with the router and get it back on track. I will search online and get some direction and hope I don't get too aggravated when it takes me 3 hours to rectify it. Not tonight. 
3. Cheryl Doodie showed me my "Bullseye" quilt today...she has started hand quilting the red lines on it and it looks awesome! I love it. I can't wait til it is done. Her quilting has won awards and spots in national shows. 
4. Biopsy on the lip and a precancerous bit frozen off my nose. Bain de Soleil days of the 70's haunt me.