Well Along aka A Good Start

Spent the better part of Monday with my stitching group.  Good fellowship, good friends, and lots of hints and tricks and new techniques to explore.  I took along my second commissioned bag to work on as it is mostly paid for, and long overdue.  Our group disciplinarian has admonished me sternly about finishing this bag.

I am really getting ahead with it though.  It is to be more outrageous than the last one and to be two sided.
The first side is a crazy quilt block.....that is Crazy Quilt To The Tenth Power!

The background is all ties and the predominant colour is purple, ties again.  I am amazed that I can think up so many things to do with purple.

I love my stash of buttons, they can be tarted up quite nicely, especially when you have a stash of flower shaped sequins which stand up beautifully on little stalks of seed beads.

SIDEBAR:   We had a group of young college people

over on Saturday.  One of the young ladies who

  had never been here before looked around in    

total jaw dropped amazement and said "I've      

never met anyone who canned buttons before!" 

I am still laughing!                                             

And last but not least the ubiquitous spider.  He is made with beautiful big faceted Amethyst beads. I am using a lot of Amethyst and Ruby beads on this piece as well as Swarovsky crystal bicones and flower shapes, and will be using some Sterling silver as well.

The yellow centre was TOO YELLOW and fairly screamed.  I toned it down a bit with some free motion machine stitching.

I am trying to be a bit smaller and flatter as I get out to the edges of this block, I am thinking of wear and good mechanics here.  But it is so hard for me to be conservative.

I got home about six o'clock and watched 'our' Grackle steal two more worms which he ate, and then came back and very daintily removed the grass clipping mulch and picked out a morsel that had been previously buried (I watched him bury something else the other day.) There must be a pair, and they must be feeding babies, although it seems a bit early.  He must be the gobbler and she must be the stasher.  We stitcher women are good at that.

The pair of house sparrows were back again.  She lit on the fence and chirped at him, but he must not have been in the mood for love and just flew away.  They put on quite a show the other day, but he is a rude fellow and kept pecking her on the head.  I certainly would have told him where to get off!   Oooohhhh, bad pun!

I weeded part of one perennial bed for two hours, and picked some rhubarb and baked a pie.  I was righteously exhausted when bedtime came, but what a wonderful day.

My Year Is Booked!

My dear patron has filled my year with projects, the whole year!  She loves my work and wants me to do a purse for her, one for her mom, a large wall hanging, an 18" doll, a Christmas tree Angel, and six fairy ornaments, and possibly a sculpture.  These are to be VERY elaborate and extensively embellished (read encrusted).  I am looking forward to doing these varied projects.  She has only one condition....there must be some purple in everything. 

Also, she has a Guatemalan quilt she wants me to repair.  That Guatemalan fabric won't take vigorous machine washing! Some of the blocks need replacing.  This is not such a very exiting project.

I am having to polish up my bag making skills, it has been a while since I have made a pattern of an existing bag that cannot be taken apart.  Just how do you get that zipper in there and then turn it right side out??  Beats me...I will have to fiddle some more.  I used to be able to do this, and even taught classes in it.....I have my notes somewhere.  It is the zipper that is befuddling me, never done that before.

It is also Christmas....DH and I are into baking cookies to take with us when we show up for Christmas dinner at the two places we have been invited.  So far I have done two different kinds, one is the most delicious oatmeal cookie.  I have been searching since childhood for the perfect oatmeal cookie, I think I have found it.  I got the recipe a couple of days ago from a friend.  DH so far has baked none....and it was his idea in the first place!!

Both families have lots of children,  Christmas Eve 3 boys and 2 girls from 15 down to 5 and Christmas Day four boys from 22 to 17.  We will be awash with torn paper and laughter, and even some interesting conversation.  University boys are fun to talk to, so full of confidence, with none of their shiny sharp edges knocked off by life yet.

If you haven't got grandchildren for Christmas, borrow some!   hehehehe

Merry Artful Christmas to you all.