Puzzle Piece Charms

These are a set of charms that I made for a "game piece" swap on Adornmentz. I have been wanting to do something with puzzle pieces for awhile--I bought a puzzle with tiny pieces at a garage sale last summer, and finally had a reason to use them. I spray painted them metallic gold, and then wrapped them with 20 gauge copper wire strung with seed beads. They are about .75 x 1.25 inches. I am planning on making a jewelry set with just the puzzle pieces, but so far only had time enough to do the ones for the swap.

Bead on a Wire Workshop Done!

This is the last lesson for the workshop. I had a really good time, learned so much during the past few months. I would like to continue on with bead and wire jewelry making, and do some more of these projects again in the future. The Artist's of the Round Table yahoo group is going to be starting another wire jewelry workshop in June, so I won't have jewelry withdrawl LOL! This is a twin spiral bracelet. Kind of a pain, but not too bad. There are some things I would do differently next time around, but I think the finished product looks nice. I would like to try it in two-tone wire, maybe copper and blue or something like that, but for now I need to take a little break and finish up some other projects.

Ladders--New Series

This is a detail shot of the first quilt in my series "Ladders". Can it be a series already if there is only one? I am about 3/4 done with the blocks on #2, and have more ideas...I think one thing will just lead to another. I am just starting to consiously work in series, and I am excited about creating a cohesive body of work. I am just showing the detail pic, because I just got word that it was accepted into the "Seams Unusual" art quilt show in Los Alamos this summer, so I don't want to give anything away before its debut!

Sneak Peek--Grab Bag Challenge

I am currently working on a 20 x 20 inch quilt for the Grab Bag Challenge. We exchange goodie bags of fabric and embellishments, and everyone makes a 20 x 20 quilt with the stuff they received. You can also add some of your own fabrics. We don't know who's bag we have until all of the quilts are done. So here is a little peek at what I am doing, inspired by my Leaf theme that I have been into lately, and the type of design process that I did on the Take it Further Challenge in the previous post.

Finished TIF Challenge for April

Here are a couple of the finished quiltlets that I did for the Take it Further Challenge from April. They are 6 x 6 inches, and are going to do double duty for a private swap. They were a lot of fun to make--I have a set that I am going to make for myself later.

My 100th Post--Lots of Jewelry

Looks like this is my 100th post--wow! Now I just need to do 900 more to catch up with Belinda's 1000!

I have been keeping up with my Bead on a Wire lessons, but lapsed in photographing them and posting. I am about done with the workshop, so here's what I've been up to:

What I do for a Living

I've been playing catch up on my longarm quilting business--long story--but now am getting back into the swing of things. I've had several "custom" quilts to do, and was really excited the way that this one turned out. It is called Starry Nights--click on the link to see the full view of the pattern--it is a huge quilt, and I couldn't take a full pic, but here are some detail shots. Charlotte G. pieced the quilt, and did a great job with all of those tiny pieces! The last picture is of the back--the gold thread really shows off the quilting!

Dianne S. Hire Workshop

Last weekend I took Dianne S. Hire's workshop through the New Mexico Quilter's Association based on her book, Quilter's Playtime. We learned how to do four different "games" from the book--based on less traditional free-form piecing techniques. I had so much fun--this is really an enjoyable way for me to work, and Dianne was wonderfully energetic and inspirational. This is a sample of the work that I did in the class. Eventually, I will work it out into a quilt, or maybe split up the units as the base for a couple of quilts. I look forward to exploring these techniques further!