Great Mail Day

Yesterday, I felt very blessed.

I received two "prize" packages in the mail.

The first was my eagerly anticipated prize in The Pink Artist Drawing.

The package sent by Amber Dawn was wrapped in floral tissue with little sparkles of glitter. It was tied with an organza ribbon and a rosette. I should have snapped a picture, but I was too eager to see the Pink Charms bracelet.

I wonder how many hours of work is represented in this charm bracelet? Thank you to all the Pink Charms artist for donating a charm to add to this prize. Here they are in Amber Dawn's beautiful photographs with the Pink Artists identified.

I think I will keep this intact and show it off at my bees and guild for awhile. Then, I will probably use it as a source of beautiful little additions to other art quilts and gifts.

I feel very humbled!

Not only did my Pink Charms bracelet arrive, but also my prize for participating in the Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit. This was a nice little collection of artsy things like hand-made inchies and beads, some hand-painted fabric by fabulous fiber artist Virginia Spiegel, and a small package of Misty Fuse. I also won a special drawing prize that includes some gifts from Artgirlz, including charms and a wonderful little blank book with rainbow shades of handmade paper.

My other good news yesterday is the completion of my wooden floors! Yippee!

Now I have several new things to paint: the extension to a baseboard, and the ends of all the quarter-round molding. I am excited to be putting my rooms back together, cleaning off the dust, and enjoying the end result of all this remodeling.

My Lucky Day

Yesterday was the drawing for the Pink Artist Project. You may remember that I made my Pink Wallhanging (what a creative name) to donate as a prize for a donor to the Susan G. Komen Foundation (Breast Cancer Research) through this project. Well, guess what? I also won a prize for donating! Look at this beautiful bracelet made of pink "charms" donated by many artists!

Such a variety of little pretties! I can't wait to see it up close and examine all the techniques that went into these beads, buttons, jewels, and mini-quilts! There are more pictures of the bracelet at the Think Pink Charm Exchange Blog. My friend Michelle made one of her embellished bottle cap objets d'arte for this exchange. She has already e-mailed me and apparently, not only does she have counter envy, she now has prize envy. Many thanks to everyone who made a charm to donate. They are awesome!

Please read Monica's blog post about the prize drawings. I had tears in my eyes when I read the story of the winner of Love Squared, the beautiful pink-haired doll wearing a skirt of two-inch quilt squares. She will be going to the perfect home!

The winner of my donation is Dian Moore. Dian, I will send your shiny little pink quilt on Monday since I do not have your address yet and we are leaving for the weekend in a little while. Congratulations, and I hope you will enjoy it!

Here is what I have been working on this week when I was not watching my kitchen project unfolding. I have finished three quilts in the past two years for my sister-in-law Debbie, whose late grandmother left behind many UFO's (Un-Finished Objects). At my father's birthday party in September, she brought me four more that she had gotten on her last trip to Indiana. Apparently there is a lifetime supply! Most of these are tops that have not been quilted. But this one was tied with bright red yarn. All I was asked to do is finish the binding so it can be used.

Inquiring minds might be wondering, is that polyester double-knit? Yes! Is it very stretchy and hard to work with? Yes! Is it frayed? Yes! Did she really use red yarn on pink? Yes!

So, I stitched all around the edges to stabilize, and then zig-zagged the edges to flatten them down a bit. But look....Is the fabric dry-rotted? Yes! Quite a bit of the red used in the large diamonds is falling apart, as are some of the other fabrics. So, instead of running to Wal-Mart and looking for similar shades in polyester, I did what I hope Grandma would have done. I looked through my scrap bins for anything in a similar shade.

I tried fusing over the previous patch. Nope. Does not stick to poly. And the poly kind of melts.

So, I am making appliques to stitch on top of the bad pieces. And decided to use flannel for softness.

If you can tell, this is not my favorite project. But I love the fact that my sis-in-law values her grandmother's work. This one has a certain charm, and I think it may find a home at their cabin by a mountain lake in Tennessee. I am making a black cotton binding to finish the edges. A very wide binding to cover all the fraying edges.

Have a great weekend!