Whew - what a weekend

At least now I am warm. On Friday night Molly played soccer. 4 hours in the cold. Saturday morning, Abby had a softball tournament. I do not care who you are, nor how much of a softball fanatic you are, SNOW FLURRIES AND SOFTBALL DO NOT GO TOGETHER. Yes we sat in the wind and cold and snow flurries to watch 3 softball games. In other words, my normal sit still and create was replaced by go get coffee and shiver. Took me all evening Saturday to get warm.

No creating was accomplished on Saturday at all. I do however have a stack of insulation in the barn - can't wait to get that up so I can finish the ceiling and walls.

The creating on Sunday is a piece for a reader, so I can't blog about it - yet.

I can however, post a photo of the swap I mailed for a recent Swap-Bot swap. I hope I get something back for these. The swap was titled, A-R-T-I-S-T spell it out ATC. The only criteria was that the letter be on each ATC. Fiber arts being my forte, that is the direction I went, with processes and materials used predominantly in that medium. Cross stitched the letters in my favorite charted alphabet using a hand dyed floss in shades of red. I continued the entire series with bright colors. I am incredibly happy with this set. All are created on the felted poly quilt batting that I use for baby quilts. I left it exposed on all of them.

An explanation is as follows.

A - applique. Using the tiniest scraps of some fun multicolor cotton fabric. I cut the circles usng my Sizzix die cut machine. Easy peasy.

R - Ribbon. Something of a fetish for me. I cannot resist ribbon. And I save scraps of the trimmings in plastic baggies on the offhand chance that I might use them. Do I need counseling for saving even the tiniest of scraps?????

T - Trim. I used a vintage piece of needle lace. A freebie in a box someone gave me from an estate. There were lots of new lace trims in the box. But when I dumped it on the table, I found vintage trim and some adorable buttons too. Love those freebies - especially when they contain surprises like that.

I - Interfacing. This was hard for me. There is nothing fun or artistic about interfacing. So I stamped a flower pattern on, colored with oil pastels, cut them out and gave them rick-rac stems.

S - Sequins. Aren't these fun. Another of my favorite "bling" items. This looks like a sprinkling of flowers to me. Figuring out where I wanted them was lot's of fun.

T - Toile. My favorite fabric in the whole world. In any colorway. I also love toile patterned papers. This was a selvedge scrap - and I love the button - simply tied on. Yes I save the selvedges. They actually make fabulous package ties.

I am still not complete with a few projects out there. Looming over my head and feeling like a heavy burden. I really must get some of this out of the way.

I hope this finds you with sunshine and warmer weather than we have. When it's cold, I just want to burrow in with a project or a good book. Stay wrapped up and drink hot beverages.

Have a wonderful day.