Well I made it by the “skin of my teeth” once again, only because we had leap day today. Here is my completed TIF challenge piece that I have titled “Remembering Peace??” The silk background is tie dyed with acid dyes and the peace symbol sheers are printed with Jacquard fabric paint. The peace symbols were then fused and sewn in layers to the background. I then free motion quilted the surrounding tied dyed fabric. I considered adding beads, eyelash yarn and other embellishments but decided I would have to stick with simple. I ran out of time this month because I was out of town and now we have company. It doesn’t look like March will be much better as one of my employees’ mother is dying and she had to leave to go to Florida, plus I have to take a continuing education course for my PT license and I won’t have two of my “Fiber Fridays” off. Oh well…

Here’s another shot.

A closeup of the peace symbols.

A closeup of the center spiral (which is a little wonky but I’m fairly satisfied with it.)

And another closeup. Normally, I would show you a photo of the back but I am ashamed of it. I used the pillowcase method of finishing the quilt. I tried the method from the latest (I think) QA where you put fusible on the back and then iron it down. Somehow, even though I tried to follow the directions and cut the back smaller, I ended up with extra fabric which all wrinkled up and looks awful. Perhaps it was because the back is the other piece of silk that I tie dyed and since silk is so slippery but probably just my inexperience on this process. Anyways, it was fun and I’m OK with how it turned out. Tried lots of new techniques and I keep learning. Now on to March’s challenge. By the way, those of you who won a prize for my blogging anniversary, I am working on your prize and hopefully, I’ll have them ready soon. Don’t give up hope!

I got back home on Wednesday from going to the Buyers Market of American Craft. Bought lots of new stuff for the store, visited with my sister and her family and went out to dinner with Vicki. The photo above is two pieces of Vicki’s hand painted metallic fabric that she generously gave me. Isn’t it beautiful? Thanks Vicki!

I had this beautiful postcard waiting for me from Donna when I got home. This photo doesn’t do it justice. Thanks Donna!

And another thing I found in the mail, these wonderful hand dyed threads from Sharon B. They are gorgeous and I can’t wait to try them out. Thanks Sharon!

I have managed to do a little work while I was gone. These are felted beads that I’m going to make into barrettes. I need to do a few more colors but these were the prototypes. I’ll show the finished product once it’s completed.

Today I worked on TIF for February. This is a sneak preview. It’s what I practiced on to see how I wanted to sew the peace symbols on. I made two gifts from this but I’ll show you later once the recipients have received them. The front of my TIF is completed. Now I think I will quilt it but have to decide how that’s going to work. Again, I think I’ll be posting on or near the last day of the month. Hopefully…

Look what Val sent me – a lovely piece of paper that she embellished with scrim and lace and painted, silk cocoons, silk rods and a beautiful card. Thanks Val! This was a swap where I sent her a UFO of mine that she liked (plus some silk and wool that I dyed). I think I got the better end of the deal!

Here’s a close up of the paper.

And another.

Here’s a padfolio that I made for a donation for a group I belong to. It will be in a silent auction. The free tutorial for this is at Fibre and Stitch.

Here’s the back.

And the inside.

On to February TIFC. I decided that what I remembered was the 60’s in general and I wanted to do something to represent that. So I drew “tie dye” in my workbook.

And then I found this photo on the web with overlapping circles in a variety of colors. So I thought that I could do that with peace signs on sheers. That way they could overlap, with varying amounts of stitch but you could still be able to see through to the tie dye base. Perhaps a bit cliche but I don’t think the peace signs will be too evident once I’ve got them all on there.

So today, I tie dyed a piece of habatoi silk. The reason I used silk is because I only have acid dyes which don’t work on cotton. I did two pieces but the other piece was a flop with too much white. But I’ll use that for something else I’m sure.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon stamping sheers with a gradation of sizes of peace signs in different colors.

Then 5 different ones done with monoprinting and a paper mask for the peace sign. These will be on the top of all the other layered sheers. So now on to arranging the sheers, sewing them on, deciding if I’ll burn some back or not. Very different sort of piece for me and nothing I would have considered without the challenge. I’m interested to see how it will come out. Next week, I’m off to Richmond, VA and Philadelphia, PA. It’s a buying trip for the store. I’m going to hopefully get together with Vicki while I’m in Richmond. So I probably won’t be posting next week.

I used this random sequence generator to draw names for my one year of blogging drawing. The numbers drawn were 7, 6 and 4. So the commenters who won a piece of my work are:

Purple Missus – 7
Sequana – 6
Guzziesue – 4

Congratulations and send me your snail mail addresses. I’ve got an idea for what I’m going to do but haven’t started yet. You’ll be receiving something soon.