Last Finishes of 2007

These are the last 2 Priority Quilts completed during 2007 ~ they are the 29th and 30th of the year! I have another pieced and I'm working on the hand quilting, but it will be counted as the first one for 2008.
The first is Exuberant Color ~ named in honor of Wanda who sent me this fabulous orphan block with the suggestion that I do something with it for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I hand quilted it using a variety of shades of embroidery floss (3 strands). Then I raided my stash of batiks for the back and the binding. Here's a link to Wanda's blog ~ it's one of my favorite daily reads.

And the following Priority Quilt is named Mindful Moodling, V (Juxtaposition, Jr.). For those of you who don't know about moodling, in the 1930’s, author Brenda Ueland wrote a book titled "If You Want to Write: A book about Art, Independence & Spirit” and I copied this phrase of hers in one of my journals: “so you see, imagination needs moodling — long inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering”… the fabrics in this PQ were scraps from 2 different quilts hand quilted with many shades of yellow, gold, and soft orange embroidery flosses. I work on these when I'm watching television, waiting for appointments, covering the front desk at work when the receptionist takes her lunch hours... the scraps are laid down to cover the foundation fabric, then loosely basted in place. Once the hand quilting in one direction is completed (through the top and batting only), I remove the basting threads and add the back fabric. I then "moodle" in the other direction through all 3 layers. The inspiration for my version of "moodling" came from Tonya's LazyGal blog - click here to see photos and posts re: Tonya's threadies.

Happy New Year to each of you ~

"Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front..." (Henry Ward Beecher)