FUN WITH PAISLEY

Well....I can't help myself.......my need to play with wool/felt & the new bamboo/felt is overpowering! With the busy holiday season approaching....I've focused on preparing two projects. With all my embellishments choices now organized and set aside as well, this will allow me to grab either project do some handwork as time permits.

It's amazing how quickly a piece can be completed just by pecking away at it.

For project # 1, I was inspired by a piece of National Nonwoven's wool felt that my friend Nancy Bruce (dyer extraordinaire) overdyed for me. Some time ago I created a wool/felt beaded paisley design that was donated to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative - Priority Quilts so I decided to explore this design element further.

The target size for the center of the piece will be 14" square....so I sketched some ideas to fit in those measurements. After some tweeking....I traced the shapes onto the paper side of Wonder-Under and applied them to several color choices of both wool/felt and bamboo/rayon felt.

These shapes were fused to the right side of the mottled wool/felt square which was stabilized with a Pellon light-weight non-fusibile interfacing. This view (from the stabilized backside) shows the first of the Paisley designs which has been machine blanket stitched in position.

Here's the front view. The small white basting stitches near the edges attach the stabilizer to the back and also provide a guide (14" sq.) for placing the Paisley shapes.....

Next I begin the fun part....the beading.....back at you soon with my progress.

Oh.....today is NFL Sunday.....we are cheering for Seattle......but we must wait...they don't play until 4:30 PM. The 11 of us remaining in the Suicide Pool have selected 5 different teams this week. No offense anyone.....but I'm hoping Atlanta, New England, New Orleans, and YIKES...this is hard to type......Green Bay all lose.....which would leave only 3 left in the pool!! Hope this confession doesn't jinx me.....