Mystery Gifts Revealed (part 1)

I almost forgot to share with you the pictures of the gifts I was working on at Christmastime! These pillows were made out of the silk ties I've been collecting from local thrift shops. I backed them with dupioni silk.


These are only two of the four pillows I made. There's also a wall hanging that I'll show in another post.

Today I have been working out my ideas for the tote bag challenge I'm participating in locally. I didn't think to get a picture of the challenge fabric yet; I'll have to do that before I cut into it. It looks ~ to me ~ like a black fabric that has been discharged in a very controlled way. Turns out it has more blue in it than I would ever have guessed. That threw me for a loop when I first began to audition other fabrics. Another element of the challenge is to include bright lime green. That wasn't nearly as difficult as finding co-ordinating fabrics/prints! I think I'm ready to begin cutting and sewing but will probably have to wait a couple of days. (The bags are supposed to be finished and presented at our next meeting on January 17.) I'm going back out to my daughter's house so DH can have a movie fest with the volume turned WAY UP. A movie theater experience featuring his favorite action movies is one of the things that recharges his batteries. I find the noise overwhelming. Since he has to return to work on Monday I'll go visit the DGD's and let him have his experience. :- )

A couple of other items: Is anyone else out there hooked on Project Runway? Did you see the Hershey's Chocolate challenge this week?! What fun! It's sheer torture having to wait another week for the next episode.

And on the Take It Further Challenge front, I'm wondering whether I want to completely finish each piece as I make it or whether I could leave them "raw" until the very end to give myself more options for setting them together somehow. I have no interest in making an official quilt out of them. There are some interesting plans for assembling some of the Bead Journal Project pages that are being made. My concern is that if I leave them raw I will then have a lot of finishing work to do at the end of the year and, honestly, finishing is my weak point.

One more thing: I had my name on the waiting list for a new book from our library (Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair). When it came to be my turn to read the book I couldn't get past the first page because of the cigarette smoke that had already permeated the pages. How disappointing! I've ordered the book from Amazon.com now and would really like it to arrive before I leave for DD's so I can read it during quiet moments there. {sigh}