Latest Quilt

I cannot believe it has been a week since my last post!!! Time goes by too quickly!

Last week I was busy finishing a quilt that was being donated to a fundraiser, as a raffle prize, for a young boy here in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, that has Hodgkins Lymphoma.

It was a double bed size quilt, made from a variety of fabrics to give it a scrappy look.  I love quilts made from many different fabrics.

Had a few blocks left over that I included into the backing.

Since the weekend I have been spending a lot of time on my torch making glass beads, and I also have another quilt in the works.

If the sun stays out later, I will take pictures and post them for you to see.

Have a great day!

A Little Something New

Still busy, busy, busy trying to create a good bit of inventory, but I thought I'd do a quick post to show you another new item.

Been so inspired by the artwork I have seen lately using felt and embroidery.

I don't think I have embroidered since grade school!

Added some sequins just because that is one classy owl, and did some leafy-stippled quilting.

This little bag is perfect for grabbing your keys, money and phone and zipping out the door.  It even has a wrist loop so it can be with you all the time.

Bottom has a slightly flattened bottom so it can sit all by itself.

Bye for now...... I am off to finish doing one million things all at the same time :)

I Did It!!!!

Ever since I have been working on these bangles I have been trying to add little raised designs to them.

I was not going to give up......so I asked a friend's advice and that didn't work out exactly, but it lead me to another idea, and I finally got the little doo-dads to stay soldered on!!!

I was over the moon!!!!

"Live Love Laugh"

There is a flower pendant and a coral colored crystal hanging from the side.

And each end has a little scroll design like you see in the above picture.

I wanted to wait 'til I had more inventory to show more jewelry, but I am so excited I got this to work that I couldn't wait.

It turned out to be a muggy day here, so the pictures aren't the best, but if you click on them for a larger version they will be clearer.

Potcake Jewelry

For almost a year now I have been playing around with metal stamping.  I do dog tags for our local humane society, Friends of Abaco Animals.

I have also done necklace charms, but the last few weeks I have been doing some bangles and bracelets, in an effort to build up some inventory.

"Potcake Love"

For those of you that don't know, "Potcakes" are the local mutt of the Bahamas.  Since I do animal rescue work I have a few of them.

The name came from the cake (the burnt rice) that was on the bottom of the pot when a local dish, peas and rice, was cooked and then thrown out for the dogs to eat.....get it?....POTCAKE!!

They are great dogs and are extremely smart.

The bangle above I made for myself so of course it is my favorite.  It is really difficult to photograph jewelry so I am not sure if you can tell there is a heart charm and a blue crystal hanging from the bangle as well.  If you click on the picture you can see a larger view.

Anyway...back to work to build up that inventory.......

A Beachy Owl

In the Bahamas we have owls and we have beaches, but I don't think it's natural for an owl to live at the beach.......not this owl......

His silver tag underneath says "My Heart is at the Sea".

So this little owl lives at the beach with his little pink beach birdy friends.

Amongst the coconut trees and tall grasses.

After he was created I had to decide what I could possibly do with this little quilty project.

I am sure most of you could guess........

A journal cover!!!!!

I am having so much fun with these.

I have other ideas for these quilted owls, other than journal covers and scarves, but the days just aren't long enough.

As soon as my ideas go from a sketch into a quilt....you will be the first to know!

Platters!!!

I was so excited to get these out of the kiln that I was diving in while the kiln was still almost 400 degrees!!!  Just had to at least get the top 2 pieces out to show you.

So here is the first one.......an owl of course, with his two little birdy friends!

 And deep down I still have mermaids in my imagination, so I had to do a mermaid piece.

Here she is.  Been painting ceramics for longer than I'd like to remember and never painted a mermaid!

My mermaids have ended up on furniture, pillows, quilts......but never on anything clay.....hard to believe!

Anyway, just a quick post to show you some new clay goodies that I have been talking about for a while.

Inspiration in Packaging!

Thru blogging, flickring and facebooking I have been fortunate to meet a lot of awesome artists and see some amazing artwork.

One of those artists is Kristen Beason.

A few months ago she did a fabulous piece of artwork for me of my cats, and then a few weeks ago I purchased this ornament, below, from her because I have a strange fascination with cupcakes!

Plus, the money from this was going to a charity that buys birthday gifts for kids in need.

When I got the package in the mail and opened it, I was as fascinated with the packaging as I was with the ornament!  I have struggled for years with packaging my artwork, and this artist's packaging was beautiful.....I still haven't taken the ornament out of the packaging!

So then yesterday when I was making that journal cover for my friend, I was wondering how I would give it to her....a gift bag, should i wrap it?......and then i remembered that cute little package from Kristen.

I came up with my own version, and just to be sure i wasn't stepping on anyone's toes, I emailed Kristen and asked if it looked like a copy of hers.

She thanked me for emailing her and told me it was not a copy.

So here is the journal, all wrapped up and ready for delivery.

I used a clear bag, topped with decorative papers which I stitched ric rac to, added grommets, zig zag stitching and a tag.

This could be a whole new creative world for me and all those scrapbooking supplies I have been buying for years and never used.

Now my head is over flowing with more packaging possibilities.

During creative spells like this, there are just not enough hours in the day!

Owls Keep Appearing

Today I have been trying to get enough clay stuff together to fire up my kiln, and i was not getting very far since my kiln is pretty big.

So while I was waiting for that to dry I decided to make this journal cover for a friend.

The above picture shows the entire quilted piece, before i added the binding.

Here it is all finished, with a ribbon tie for a closure and another ribbon for a book marker.

I sure hope she likes it.

Can't forget to show you the back with the little pink baby bird.

In between making this journal cover, waiting for glazes to dry and getting frustrated because my kiln is too big........I ordered myself a smaller kiln.

A neat little one that plugs into a regular outlet....the one I have needs a dryer outlet.

The new one can do glass, ceramic, bead annealing and metal clay!!!

Should be here next week......I cannot wait.....but hopefully by then I will have fired up my big one and get to show you those pieces........I think there's probably a few owls in there!.....imagine that!!

Maybe....Just Maybe...this is an obsession.......

These owls just may be bordering on a mild obsession!

I keep getting these new ideas in my head and have to get them out and onto fabric.  Really hoping this creative spell sticks around for a while before the creative block sets in.

Still have other owl and bird items that are in the process of being finished.........need to fire up the kiln and polish some silver before i can show you those items.

Bits and Pieces

This week I received some beads from my friend at Jangles.  I was so excited.  The owl beads are just too cute.  I plan on making some jewelry pieces from these, but just not sure what right now.

My mind has been on this, the last few days........

It is a sneak peek at a quilt I am working on for a Spring Fling Mini Quilt Swap.

All I have to do is put the binding on, but I can't show you the whole quilt until my partner has received it......don't want to spoil the surprise.

As soon as she receives it I will post a picture of the entire (mini) quilt!

Donations :)

This week has been busy so far.....wrapping up work that I am donating to various fundraisers.

The "early bird" quilt above, "mermaid garden" and "bird watcher", below are going to an art show in Nassau (the big city of the Bahamas), called "Art for Haiti"

A group of artists have come together to have this show, and each artist is donating a portion of their sales to help Haiti after the devastating earthquakes.

"bird watcher"

"mermaid garden"

I also had to paint two buoys for Friends of the Environment's upcoming "Reef Ball" which takes place this coming Saturday.  Check out their website.....they do great things for our beautiful island of Abaco.

On Saturday night when a guest makes a donation they will be able to pick from a variety of buoys that have been painted, or decorated, by local artists.

A little "thank you" from Friends of the Environment!

The first one I did was with a mermaid that wrapped right around the buoy, and a saying on it "if fishes were wishes, all dreams would come true"

It's hard to see the whole buoy in pictures, unless I posted about 5 pictures!

I originally wanted to mosaic one of the buoys, but this was taking longer than I anticipated, so I will have to finish that later on and share it in another post.

These buoys wash up on the beaches here, in the Bahamas, so this is recycled art.

Plus I love to collect them, so my husband was very happy that two would finally be leaving!

Of course I had to do one with owls :)

Both sides have an owl on it....this is my favorite.

Then there was the fundraiser for "Pathfinders" which is a local scholarship charity here in Abaco.  

This is a mixed media, framed quilt.  The artwork started out as a traditional quilt, then i embellished it with paint, and framed it in a driftwood frame which is embellished with smaller driftwood pieces and sea glass.

And I said in a previous post that I would post a picture of my completed journal cover.  I finally got the binding on it, with a button for the closure.

I had alot of fun doing this and I am sure there will be more of these in my sewing future.

Will be sharing lots of new work with you over the next few weeks.

My imagination is in high gear and I am producing new goodies everyday.

Happy creating....until the next post!