Alice, Camelot and a Glamorous Harvest

I have been doing a lot of trades with my Roses on my Table groups. For the tag theme Ancient Cities, I blanked out, but finally decided on the fictitious city of Camelot since somehow my family has gotten addicted to the show Merlin.

For the Statues tag theme, I really was at a loss. So, I did a search of NYC statues and hit on the Alice in Wonderland statues in Central Park. My daughter loved climbing on them when she was little, so that seemed like fun. I combined it with an image of the Imagine mosaic tribute to John Lennon.

The ATC theme harvest seemed a little dull, since I first thought of the same old Thanksgiving feast images. Thanks to some http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ vintage clipart, I made a photoshop collage of antique seed packets. They were particularly interesting to me because they are marked Oneida County, which I where I grew up. The art needed some pepping up, so I added in glamorous 1940s model Georgia Carroll, who is the grandmother of my daughter's best friend, which kind of went with the antique seed packets and made me think of beautiful women squashing grapes at harvest time.

Machine Quilting Unlimited and Eye of Panic

What a great surprise I had this weekend! I opened my mailbox and found an envelope addressed to me from some place in Florida. I opened it, and found a copy of the November/December issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited. I thought it was a free, trial copy, but then I noticed that there was an article on the Sacred Threads Exhibit that was held in DC this past summer. Since I had been a participant, with two pieces in the show, I turned right to that article. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw my own eye staring back at me from page 28!

The author and magazine's managing editor, Kit Robinson, had chosen an assortment of images and stories from the exhibit for her seven page article. I am thrilled and honored to have my work included.

This is a detail shot of the piece. It will also be included in a book by Karen Musgrave called Quilts in the Attic: Uncovering the Hidden Stories of the Quilts We Love, which will be out in February 2012. (Karen's book is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com)

Duct Tape Hardware ATCs: Unchain My Heart? or Heart of Gold?

Hardware. It sounded like a really fun ATC theme. So, I dug around the house looking for mechanical bits and pieces and found nothing. Not one bolt, nut, or screw that would work. No little washers, no gear pieces. Well, we aren't the handiest, do-it-yourself family, so I shouldn't have been surprised. I was stuck and frustrated and had to rethink my whole idea because I didn't have time, or $, to run out to the hardware store to look for inspiration. I settled on good old silver duct tape, and went back to my tried and true favorite base, painted, recycled coffee sleeves. I painted the sleeves gold to contrast the silver duct tape and angeled the tape on the base. I had some chain link left from my Eye Of Panic art quilt [that I really did buy at the hardware store--and yes, they thought I was a crazy artist buying so much chain], so I punched holes in the cards, set grommets in them, and threaded the chain thru, closing it with a little silvery end cap. I added a little gold cardboard lopsided heart on the chain for softness. It looked naked, so I added gold brads in each corner to mimic nailheads.

I couldn't decide on the title: Heart of Gold [strains of Neil Young running through my head bring me back quite a few years] or Unchain My Heart? Isn't that a country song? or am I mixing Unbreak My Heart with Unchained Melody? Any votes on the title?