It's been too long since I last posted! Lots going on, and the blog seems to the be thing that gets cut when I'm busy. I post almost daily on Facebook since it's quick, so if you're on FB and you'd like to see what I've been up to a bit more often, send me a friend request! I finished a book using the pink and orange goose painting that I showed you in my last post. I had so much fun using bright spring colors!
The spine is made from velvet cut from an old dress, and vintage lace.
The signature wraps include some of my favorite things- vintage silk, velvet, and lace, hand dyed snippets, and of course, lots of free motion quilting.
I enjoyed adding bits and pieces of my grandmother's crazy quilt scraps throughout the book. You can see some on the pocket below:
And here's another pocket with some of Grandma's scraps:
Below are more of her crazy quilt scraps that I worked into the back cover. Since art rules don't work well for me, this is my version of crazy quilting. I wonder what Grandma would think :-)
French knots work great to attach pieces of sheer beaded lace that are difficult to glue.
Each of the six signatures have stitching on the center fold.
I smiled a lot while creating this book. Memories of my sweet Grandmother, as well as knowing that the book will be going to someones daughter and newborn grand daughter, made it a delight to spend time with.
I can't sign off without sharing more excitement about my teaching trip to Italy- I leave in 9 days! One of the places I'm so excited about seeing during my extra week in Italy, is a butterfly house near Siena. The Garzoni gardens are there as well, and I look forward to photographing the statuary and spring flowers.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I found an entire town nicknamed, The Butterfly Town! Bordano is around 70 miles from Venice, has a population of about 800, and artists have painted murals on the walls of many of the houses. Sounds like the perfect place to me. I plan to stay 3 days in Venice, so I'll use one of those days to visit Bordano. I look forward to sharing loads of beautiful photos when I return!
If you ever have the chance to take a workshop in Italy with Kristin and Bill Steiner, I highly recommend that you do! They are wonderful to work with, gifted at what they do, and although I haven't been there yet, I have no doubt that my time in Orvieto will be perfect in every way.
