Thanks Giving

As Thanksgiving approaches I am reminded to give thanks for all that I have and all that I cherish. My father just got home from the hospital and I am so grateful that he is feeling better and on the mend. I spent more time talking to my siblings, especially my sister, these past few weeks and that makes me so happy. I've been cleaning up my apartment and getting rid of years of accumulated stuff and though it is sometimes hard to let go of things it feels really good to have more space and see a positive vision for the future. Peaceful surroundings, space to create art, inspiration, music, comfort, love...

 Below are some ATC's that were in a recent show, Small Wonders: ATC's & ACEO's. Enjoy and have yourself a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends, love, gratefulness and good food!

Cone flower Quilt & ATC's

Homage to John

My cone flower quilt was designed from a journaling exercise that Julie Balzer did in her Journal Quilt class at City Quilter in Manhattan. Each person was handed a small image and from that had to do a series of quick sketches that the image invoked. From the 8 or 9  sketches done, one image is chosen to blow up and make into an 8 1/2" x 11" quilt. I chose the cone flower because it reminded me of the beautiful house I had in Vermont with my late husband John and the perennial gardens I tended lovingly. It is an homage to my husband.

The quilt is painted with Lumiere fabric paints, machine and hand quilted and in the process of being hand beaded. I spent three glorious hours in the park yesterday sitting at one of the chess tables hand beading.

These are two of 9 ATC's I made for a recent trade I did with a group of women in the Journal Quilt class I just finished taking with Julie Balzer at City Quilter.  The only criteria was that they had to be quilt like in some way. So I took patterned paper I had previously painted with acrylic paints, layered that with cotton batting and backed it all with lightweight canvas. I stitched each ATC with a cross stitch in each corner to hold the layers together then sewed on a found object gleaned from the streets of Manhattan in the week prior to making the ATC's.