ATCs and other business (busyness)

Life has been busy the last week and there is no end in sight.  A synopsis:

Friday night – Klondike Road Relay (a running race) from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon (176.5 km) on the highway that runs by my house.  DD # 1 and DD # 3 running legs 1 and 10 respectively.  Eight people in and out of my house all night long, including two grandchildren, both DDs, one boyfriend and my sister, who is here visiting from New Brunswick. 

Saturday – very tired from the night before.  Harvested basil from garden and made four batches of pesto.  Harvested oregano, thyme, parsley, chives and dried several batches of each.  Didn’t harvest the tomatoes yet – hope they don’t freeze.  Our sailing friends out to stay overnight in their camper and hoping to sail.  At our house for dinner along with my sister. 

Sunday – In to my LQS for a workshop/demo on the Tin Lizzie LAQ.  Very exciting and lots of of new ideas for quilting.  Part of me would like to own one of these machines, the other part doesn’t know if I can justify spending so much money on one.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – work, work, work.  Three big reports to write. 

On the quilting front I’ve been steadily working on quilting DD #2’s quilt.  Also made a few small items lately.  Here’s something I can show. 

I did an ATC trade with Linda from Linda Robertus, Quilts.  Now mind you I had never made an ATC before and had to get some instruction so I didn’t goof up.  Linda sent me this beautiful ATC

It is silk paper (paper made from silk fibres).  She said she followed a tutorial found in Down Under Textile magazine.

And this is what I sent her

 

The background is cheesecloth painted with acrylic paints.  The red is gauze layered and “soldered” onto the background.  You use a soldering iron around the edges of the shape.  It melts the fabric and the resulting gooey burnt mess acts as a solder onto the background.  It looks pretty cool I think.  There is a sequin attached to cover up a little spot where my soldering iron slipped.  ATCs are 2 1/2” by 3 1/2”, by the way.

Janet