HeART Quilt

It's been awhile since I've posted! Many things have been going on behind the scenes. I battled the flu some more and then managed to pull a muscle in my back and wasn't able to climb the stairs for a few days. Ugh!

I've been playing with fabric lately. I picked up the newest issue of Art Quilting Studio and that made me want to play with my fabric stash. Then I pulled all of my Sew Somerset issues and my Cloth, Paper, Scissors back issues and just started making notes. I've got Shibori dying on the horizon...really wanting to try my hand at that. But here is a little art quilt (about 5" x 7") that I experimented with. First I sprayed the fabric with Adirondack Spray Inks. Then I rubbed my Shiva paintstiks over rubber stamps of different sizes of hearts. After I heat set those, I stitched over them with gold metallic thread. This is a piece of muslin sewn to a felt backing. I think I'll mount this page into one of my journals after some more work. I want to add some beading and maybe something else; I'm not sure yet.

We had our Christmas party for hubby's students. I spent a lot of time getting the place ready for about 20 students, making them little gifts and assembling the gift bags. Here was the view from my second floor loft area right before we brought in the extra seating:

Here's the view from the first floor landing:

And, finally, from the bottom floor:

I painted each student a little ornament. I found some nice unfinished wooden ones at Michael's that had twine wrapped around them and a little bell at the bottom. They came in different shapes of snowflakes, hearts, a stocking and tree. Those turned out pretty good and then I decoupaged the Purdue "P" on the front and wrote their club name on the back with a date. I finished them off by edging them with an 18 kt. Gold Leafing pen. They seemed pretty happy with their gifts and that made me feel better.

So now that the annual party is over, I can get back to making art! So many projects are sitting right here in front of me and for the first time in about three weeks I'm feeling strong and healthy enough to start playing again!