serenewhimsy

found this wonderful artist a few days ago. Hope you enjoy!

working on a flower to applique onto a piece of denim…a niece will be having her second baby girl anyday…..need to get busy…..

I was on line looking for 3 D quilting and found a new type of quilt, I had never seen before. The Pine Cone or Pine Burr quilt. It was a poular pattern with southern African Americans. I found a cool story here, of a man named Oscar Evans who made his quilt, while in his late  70’s.

Those quilts were my inspiration for this flower, I’d like to one day make a larger piece using this technique. The quilts are really stunning. The Pine Burr quilt happens to be Alabama’s state quilt. I didn’t know that states had quilts…learn something new every day!

I finally learned how to create a link…Yeah! Hope you like learning about Oscar Evans.

I think I would have liked to have been a cultural anthropologist……although I’d probably have an even bigger stash of fabrics and REALLY cool textiles. This is half of a mola….I used the other half as the central panel in a baby blanket. I think the piece as a whole may have been torn, so to save it I cut it in half. A thrift store find.

I have recently pulled it out, and decided that I’d like to learn how to make these. I was surprised to read last night in my research that the Kuna Indian may be descendents of Southeast Asia, as long as 6 thousand years ago. The textiles of  Hmong and Laos are thought to be very similar. I had thought the same thing before, they do look very similar. Has anyone tried to make these or tried reverse applique? It looks challenging, but so beautiful.

found a little side project to work on.  Don’t know what this will end up as…It was inpired by this-

 a wool utility quilt found in the book below. I checked this book out from the library so often and have late fees to prove it…just so that I could look at this quilt. I REALLY like it. I was reading another quilting blog that mentioned a tutorial on ibbybee’s quilt blog and realized I might be able to try my hand at this…I need more practice but it is a start…I don’t know if I have enough patience to make an entire quilt this way…but I REALLY like that one! I finally got the book used on Amazon for like $3.99 plus shipping….oy vey the late fees I have paid on this book…...

I want to make stuff all day long!

As Thomas the tank engine, I too, want to be a Useful engine. I know that what I do has value, and I am grateful for that.

I also know that I daydream regularly of making things all day, and being able to create in my own home studio.  Using my hands to create. Playing my own music and drawing, painting, beading, sewing all day long. The delimma is that I don’t know how to do that and make a living at it.

I photographed this nutcracker and as I was editing the image, I thought about what a peaceful look this woman has about her usefullness. She is at peace with her nutcrackerness. How have you learned to be at peace with what you do for a living? How have you made your dreams come true?

 Had to share this beautiful quilt with you. Made by Mesababes on Etsy. What a great way to recycle and it’s such a great work of art.