Needle Felted Postcards

These postcards started with a piece of gray wool that somebody put on the free table at our guild meeting. It was the perfect background for these needle felted postcards for the Surface Design group "Anything but Cotton" trade.

I worked on these while we were visiting our daughter in Evanston, IL. It was the perfect travel project. The front is made with wool roving and decorated with beads, the back has painted Lutrador. I hope the recipients enjoy receiving them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Giveaway

I've been waiting patiently for the 100th country to visit my blog. Well, it finally happened on election day! It was quite the historic day for the USA and my blog. Now it's time to celebrate this memorable occasion with (2) Giveaway Prizes of 100 items from my stash.

There's a variety of buttons, paperclips, beads, shells, wrapped sticks, hand carved stamps, a bead tray, several types of cording, dyed, painted, screenprinted and discharged fabric . Two lucky people will receive a package similar to the one above.

All you have to do to WIN is leave a note. I'll randomly select two names on November 15th. Good Luck!

Spin Cycle is Done

Spin Cycle is the newest piece in my Stretched Series. Each piece is a mini quilt in itself (top, batting and back). The gallery wrapped canvas is painted, then the mini quilt is attached to the canvas with hand stitching. Spin Cycle is, by definition, a whole cloth quilt. The top is one piece of fabric that has been painted, then stitched, and embellished with hardware. Yes, you read that correctly. There are brass washers and silver lock nuts in two different sizes and of course, beads and embroidery. And, once again, the batting is exposed. Don't you just love the colors and textures in the close-up photo?

Do you name your pieces? If so, how do you chose a name? Does it pop into your head when you're in the shower? Do you dream about it? Do you find the process difficult or easy? I would love to hear from you.

Melting Pot Experiments

I finally got some time to play with the melting pot and UTEE. I made fabric beads, dipped them into UTEE, wrapped them in Angelina fibers and dipped again. They came out looking like fire opals inside glass. I had a few leftovers from the April ATC exchange and decided to cut some into 1" x 1-1/2" pieces. I then poured melted UTEE over them and heated them with an embossing tool. Looks like the designs are encased in glass. I'm going to attach pin backs to some of them and drill holes through others so I can attach them to a quilt with beads. Both came out very cool. Mike and I just came back from seeing CATS at the Arlington Theater. It was amazing, I'm so glad we went. Tomorrow night we are going to see a play at the Ensemble Theater. Ah, Life is Good!