My mom is much better, thank goodness! Surgery went well and we thought we was stable, until she had a reaction to the pain medication/anesthesia combination. She was on planet Ellie for about three days, hallucinating and unable to sleep. Someone had to be with her around the clock to make sure she was safe. Fortunately, the brain fog lifted yesterday morning and she's back to being her usual self.

Thank you to everyone who said prayers and sent kind messages. She is on the road to recovery. It will be at least six weeks until she is strong enough to go back home. Therapy will be strenuous and uncomfortable, but she is one determined lady!


These are photos of some small pieces made from photos posted on the blog a week or so ago (I've lost track of time, so it may be longer than that.) The altered photos were posted and these are the pieces printed on fabric and stitched.



Did you participate in Virginia Spiegel's Collage Mania? All eight of my pieces were acquired! I'm thrilled—thrilled they sold and thrilled to be a part of this incredible experience. The fiber art world owes so much to Virginia and Karen Stiehl Osborn for making it possible for us all to help the American Cancer Society in this manner!

Tomorrow is the deadline for donations to Virginia Spiegel's Collage Mania to benefit the American Cancer Society. This is one of my eight submissions.

I'm so grateful to Virginia for making it possible for quilters, collage artists, and mixed-media artists to participate in the fight against cancer. So many times we want to help, but feel helpless and don't know where to begin. Virginia's commitment and dedication have made it possible for hundreds of fiber artists to contribute and to make a difference.

Here is the link to the call for entries page http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageManiaCall08.html (one of my pieces is on the call for entries page!)

Each piece is only 8" x 10" so you have time to whip one up today and e-mail the jpeg to Karen Stiehl Osborn.

Straight Stitch Series

Have you ever worked in a series? Series work of other quilters and quilt artists used to fascinate me, but I never quite understood. Now I understand.

The Straight Stitch Series began on a whim with the goal of donating the pieces to Collage Mania. Here is the link http://www.virginiaspiegel.com. These are small pieces, each 8" x 10", each made with rust-dyed fabric and free-motion straight stitches, exploring the power of the simplest unit quilters have.



The photos above are numbers 4 and 5 in the series, but many more have been sketched. They take less than a day to create and use small pieces or scraps of rust-dyed fabrics from other projects.

The small format makes it easy to try a new technique, motion combination, proportion—or compare the effect of a change in one of these in two small pieces. It’s also an honor to contribute to Virginia Spiegel’s wonderful project to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. Most of us have been touched by cancer, in one way or another. This makes me feel a little less powerless.

You'll notice some new links along the side of the posting today. New additions will include blogrings and links to some of my favorite charity/funraising projects.

All the fabric postcards went out today to Holiday Mail for Heroes, sponsored by the American Red Cross. I'm so glad they are spearheading this effort to send greetings from plain old US citizen me to a service person who will be away from home for the December holidays. It was heartwarming to be able to reach out and send a little fabric hug to someone far away.

Now, back to the fabric collages for Collage Mania!