Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night — the night of the 12th day of Christmas — is the time that we celebrate the coming of the Magi to give gifts to the baby Jesus. It is the last night before the feast of Epiphany, and we use this time to — well, have a party!

As I prepare to have our annual Twelfth Night feast, I thought that I would take a little time to share what I have been doing lately.

I finally finished my latest quilt. I think I’m going to call it Sweet Dreams. You can read about it on my website here.

I also finished my felted teacup. I was asked to make a pincushion for a swap at my local guild. I never made it to the Christmas meeting — and only finished the teacup today. I spent quite some time trawling the net looking for a pincushion that didn’t look like everyone else’s pincushion. What was the point of spending time on something pedestrian? I finally found the felted teacup and fell in love with it — which of course led me to start searching through thrift shops for wool sweaters I could felt (which has led to some wonderful discoveries other than sweaters). I am amazed at what some thrift stores have — I bought several designer pieces with the original tags still on them.

I also had great fun with the I-cord maker. This wonderful idea is from Betz White who is known for her felted cupcake pincushions.

My second holiday inspiration came from my friend Rebecca Reasons. (By the way, she is the one that won the 5 x 7 of Solomon that I made for our Fiber Art Fusion Holiday gift exchange.) She is an awesome artist and just had an article published in the winter edition of Altered Couture. While I was sitting next to her at our artist’s party last month, she showed me the wonderful book cover that she had made. I loved it. Then when I went to the store to buy a new planner for the new year and couldn’t find one with a cover that I liked, I realized that I could make a cover for it. I hid away in my studio (family was home all last week) and pulled out scraps in purple hues — a little black & white — and then quilted it like crazy in yellow and orange circles. Then I added the inside tabs, a slot for a pen, and finished it in the way I make my coffee cuffs. I also added some threads for a bookmark — my only regret being that I wish that they were longer. I didn’t account enough for the ring in the binder — but I may yet tie more strings to the ends & add beads.

By the way, I am selling my Hinterberg stretch machine quilting frame.  Please email me if you are interested.