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Dogwood Trees

| JP Dawes Artist

No photos today. I made the mistake of leaving my camera at home. I rarely do that. When I do there is always something I want to photograph. This time is not an exception.

My DH Ron and I are in Illinois helping my dad sort my mom’s personal belongings. This is a poignant time for all of us. It’s a time to discover little things tucked away that had specical meaning to her. Some of them my dad knows why they were kept but other things he has no idea about. I have discovered many vintage hankies that are going home with me for a memory quilt. I found a drawer of scarves, some silk, some polyester psychedelic hippie style. I discovered all over again what a tiny, tiny woman she was before she became ill and put on weight the last few years.

Today we stopped at a landscape nursery and bought 2 flowering dogwood trees. They will be planted in my dad’s backyard as a memorial to my mom. He will be able to see them when he sits in the afternoon shade on his back porch…which is where you will find him most days when the weather cooperates. I wish I had my camera to take photographs of planting the trees. They should bloom every year close to the time of her passing and I hope they will give him comfort.

New ATCs and New group member

| JP Dawes Artist

Marie Johansen just joined our private group of ATC members. We are keeping this small so that it remains manageable for creating and mailing our cards. We are all excitied about her art.

Here are photos of my last two ATCs for the group and what the theme was:

This trade had to be something new and different for each of us, a technique we hadn’t tried yet.  I hadn’t tried using Sharpies and alcohol so thought I would give it a go. This is on a disposable blood pressure cuff that had a wonderful soft surface. The coin is a stamped brass coin from a belly dancer’s scarf I found at one of the Ropas.
This ATC swap is our current one. Wanda came up with our theme of “Warped”, to be interpreted however you chose. I went with the creating a warp and then weaving silver toothpicks in the weft. The medallion is another of my finds from a ropa mercado. It was an elastic belt that I tore apart to yield dozens of these pewter medallions. I will put these in the mail this week after I make little bubble wrap envelopes for them.

New FFFC post

| JP Dawes Artist

I’ve been gone for awhile with family needs. We had to do a trip from the Rio Grand Valley to Illinois for my mom and dad. I was reminded of why we don’t stay in Arkansas during the winter. We experienced bone chilling cold and watching the weather on a daily basis for driving conditions.

When we got back, it was time for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge I’ve missed the last few. I thought I probably deserved some play time to help with the stress level. All of us at a certain age who are experiencing very elderly parents probably understands what I’m saying.

If You’re interested, take a look at the FFFC blog. I hope the link works, I haven’t had much luck with that on this blog. The blog tells how this is constructed and the materials used. And of course the most important, what the challenge was.

The piece was fun to do, not really a departure for me but further exploration. My word for the year is Acceptance and I accept that this piece is what it is.

Inner Animal Challenge

| JP Dawes Artist

Here is my entry for Quilting Arts Magazine’s Inner Animal Challenge. Sadly my piece was not chosen to be sent to them. So I can post it here for you to see. Congratulations to all the great art quilters who had their piece chosen.

The title of the piece is the “Eye’ds of March Hare”. I was born on the first day of spring when that was the 21st of March. Now due to the calendar or something it is the 20th of March. My inner hare wears a necklace with my birthdate on it.

Some people would like to be a cute fluffy, furry bunny but I’ve never been accused of being fluffy. Although I must admit as I get older I get fluffier around the middle. My inner animal is a hare who is strong and capable and doesn’t put up with much nonsense. I simply don’t have time for it since with RA it takes me way more time to do things I used to fly through. I would love to be able to flit and hop around like the proverbial March hare but sadly that is one of my inner qualities that I can only dream about now.

This was done with rust dyed fabric and painted with textile paint. Free motion stitching forms some of the fur and the background is quilted in clover. The large eye is trapunto and surrounded by beads for sparkle. The background is also beaded. I even gave my inner animal whiskers since she doesn’t have to hide them or cut them off like I do.