This and That

 I finished quilting my first donation quilt. It will go to a friend of a friend who is going through a very rough time with her cancer. The charity to whom I was originally going to give these quilts requested flannel backs and I bought some very pretty ones at Joanne's. I washed them all, knowing that flannel shrinks but was dismayed by what they looked like after the washing.They were all pilly and looked terrible. I took them back to Joanne's and they gave me a refund. Then I had to go through the process of picking out all cotton for the backs. I am giving them to a different local charity to avoid a lot of mailing.

For this one I used the same pretty floral fabric that is in the binding. 

I free-motion quilted it in a variegated thread just following the wiggly lines in the striations. It was quite easy to do on my Bernina, working from the center out since the quilt is only 40" square.

I bound it using a wonderful method given to me by my friend, Barb. The two long strips are sewn together, then sewn to the back of the quilt, then brought over to the front where you sew it down on the machine. No hand sewing involved and I like the way that piping gives it a little pizzazz. If you want the directions, let me know.

One of the best things that happened to me this week was purchasing this fabulous little quilt from the SAQA Benefit Auction. It was made by Lin Elmo, a member of our local SAQA group. Lin was an art teacher for 37 years and is so very talented. I asked her her process and she told me that she drew the bears directly onto the white cotton with a sepia Fabre-Castell Pitt artist pen. She then added color with Derwent watercolor pencils. It is an original design. I wish I could draw like that!

This was her statement on the back of the quilt and the title is Partners With a Purpose.

I had fun decorating masks this week. I used a Tim Holtz stamp from his Flower Garden collection. I stamped it with a permanent ink in black and then used acrylic paints to color them in. I think they look like watercolors. The mask came from Joanne's and I think they are neoprene. They are very comfortable, fit close to the face and wash and dry like a dream. And they are very inexpensive....3 for $6.99.

For this one I used the same stamp, using white acrylic paint spread rather thick on my craft mat. 

Same as above, but this time painting the flowers in with more paint. It took forever! I had to go over and over with the white for it to cover. I would put the paint down and think it looked just fine, then would come back 10 minutes later to see that it had just sunk into the fabric. But I still think it looks pretty cute and I wore it out to dinner last night to favorable reviews. 

I plan to make some more of the light gray (they don't have white). I think they would make nice stocking stuffers at Christmas.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.