Two Completions

We'll open with Natalie and her pig tails. When she was a baby and I could torture her with various hairstyles she had no hair. Now, she's a typical girl. One day she won't let you comb it and the next day we're styling it to stay home. This was a home day. Anyway...

Here is the WIP Love piece completed. I had a lot of fun with this, as I didn't think to hard. I just did whatever technique I wanted to try and made it work. I didn't quilt it very heavily because it's not very big and I didn't want to take anything away from the elementals. I satin-stitched the edges with a metallic red Sulky thread. I also used that to quilt.

I am very excited about this project and it will be an ongoing. This is the front cover of a fabric book that I've titled "Art of the Word". It was born from doing the collage and from an idea I've had for several years. Ever since I saw Bonnie McCaffery speak at Charlotte Quilt Guild I've been fascinated with creating Fantasy Fabrics, so much so I went on an obsessive hunt to find her out of print book. So, each page of the book will be a quilted collage representing one word. Stay tuned for more pages.
Here is a close-up of the fantasy fabric I made to be the book's cover. I foiled, used Angelina, some other sparkly fibers and sequins topped with tulle and quilted. The words I printed from my computer and aged them with Distress Ink. The back is the same batik without all the frills.

It feels so good to be back and creating. I can't believe just two months ago I was ready to invite my friends in to raid my stash and then burn my studio.

Michele