Monday, June 22, 2009

Needle-felted jewelry



This is the first of several photos of needle-felted jewelry. This neck piece is perfect for me right now. With so much stress after my mom's passing, the lightweight necklace doesn't weight my shoulders down and cause muscle spasms—and the colors are yummy!

The base is green felt with a bit of yellow/rust/green hand-dyed silk hankie felted on top. There are a few beads (of course) added by hand and the back is finished with Ultrasuede. The silver part is 16-gauge silver wire that's been flattened on a tiny jewelry anvil with a chasing hammer.

This is a bonus exercise for the Extreme Needle Felting class I teach at Quilters Keep Learning http://www.quilterskeeplearning.com

Another photo tomorrow!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Don't pay the ransom!

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, honest! I had no idea there was so much to do for someone's estate.

Fortunately, Mom was really organized with her finances. Too bad she wasn't equally organized in her house! It's taking weeks to sort through her personal items to get ready for the appraiser. We're making headway, but it's really slow going.

I've been teaching needle-felting classes between trips to Mom's house and the women's shelter in town. The classes are really fun! I'll post photos of some jewelry pieces tomorrow.

Friday, June 5, 2009



If a funeral can be beautiful, this one was! There was sunshine, laughter, tears, music, balloons, and food. Sounds like a party, doesn't it? It was truly a celebration of a long and full life well lived.

Mom's favorite color was pink, so it was easy to choose flowers: dark pink roses, light pink roses, pink Gerbera daisies, pink lilies, pink stock, white stock, and lots of baby's breath. There will probably be plenty of Threadography pieces from photos of her flowers. LOL!



This is a photo of the "22 balloon salute" at the cemetery. There were suppose to be 24 balloons, but two broke in transit.

She would have loved the whole affair! The hearse took a wrong turn in the cemetery and we all had to circle around again to get to the grave site.

She was very organized and has made administering her small estate quite painless. Going through her house is another matter! Like many lifelong crafters, she was a packrat. Throw away 4" of ribbon left from the bolt? No way! You never know when you'll need plastic butter tubs, or strawberry boxes, or snippets of fabric scraps, or the tiny dab of glue left in the tube. Sigh! What a job.

Two bits of business: Don't forget to send the greeting card for Clotilde. Because of my mom's passing, the deadline has been extended to the end of June. Please let me know if you'd like to send a card for her and I'll give you my snail-mail address.

Also, e-mails have gone out to those who indicated they'd like to be part of the ESF Print Test Team AND who gave me their e-mail addresses. Although more than 70 people signed up, fewer than 50 gave me e-mail addresses. If you would like to be part of the team, there are still a few openings. Please leave a comment here, including your e-mail address!